Forever Learninghttps://jawwad.me
Learnings from Building Products and Solving Problems.Sat, 20 Apr 2019 14:59:38 +0000en-CA
hourly
1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.3https://i1.wp.com/jawwad.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/cropped-favicon_FLJ.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1Forever Learninghttps://jawwad.me
323255406248Book Summary of Pomodoro Technique Illustrated by Staffan Nöteberghttps://jawwad.me/book-summary-pomodoro-technique-illustrated-staffan-noteberg/
https://jawwad.me/book-summary-pomodoro-technique-illustrated-staffan-noteberg/#respondTue, 12 Mar 2019 13:02:28 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3933Pomodoro technique has been amongst one of my most impactful experiments to improve productivity. Today, I will be summarizing a book, Pomodoro Technique Illustrated by Staffan Nöteberg, that I read as I attempt to master the skill of Pomodoro via personal experiments. Introduction to Pomodoro The Pomodoro technique was defined by Francesco Cirillo in 1992 after the frustration of low productivity and unstructured studying. Therefore, his goal become to use Pomodoro (time) to focus and get the work done. In summary, Pomodoro technique is as simple as; Prioritized and Scoped (Defined and Estimated) tasks to do Set a timer for 25 minutes and start the first one. Take a break and repeat this until the task is completed. (Advanced) – Have retrospectives, create daily commitments, handle interruptions, and improve your practice as you go. In Pomodoro technique, velocity means how many focused sessions (pomodori) you get done each day. Remember, you get lots of work done by focusing on focus (and not on focusing getting the work done). Why the Pomodoro Technique? Here are some reasons why the Pomodoro technique is effective; Excitement decreases when complexity is high – with Pomodoro you don’t focus on the complexity but rather focusing […]

Introduction to Pomodoro

The Pomodoro technique was defined by Francesco Cirillo in 1992 after the frustration of low productivity and unstructured studying. Therefore, his goal become to use Pomodoro (time) to focus and get the work done.

In summary, Pomodoro technique is as simple as;

Prioritized and Scoped (Defined and Estimated) tasks to do

Set a timer for 25 minutes and start the first one. Take a break and repeat this until the task is completed.

In Pomodoro technique, velocity means how many focused sessions (pomodori) you get done each day. Remember, you get lots of work done by focusing on focus (and not on focusing getting the work done).

Why the Pomodoro Technique?

Here are some reasons why the Pomodoro technique is effective;

Excitement decreases when complexity is high – with Pomodoro you don’t focus on the complexity but rather focusing to get the first small chunk completed.

Procrastination increases when tasks are boring – with Pomodoro you focus on getting the task done within the timer – regardless of how boring it is.

The hard work is done, but the activities that matter are still not completed – with Pomodoro you focus on a prioritized list of work each day.

The pressure builds before a deadline – with pomodoro you focus on completing the focus and work session and not get stressed about the deadline (which you will hopefully meet)

The mental transition between work and breaks is too slow – we are not good at self-regulation – that is when we need to break and when we need to focus. Pomodoro, helps with that by alerting us to focus or take a break.

Mistakes get repeated over and over – with Pomodoro you learn your weaknesses and “distractions” to not repeat the mistakes via retrospectives.

The effort that one task takes is underestimated – usually we don’t know how long a task with take, with Pomodoro, you attempt to do that upfront (and if wrong, learn from it).

The scope of a task is underestimated – usually we don’t know the scope (exactly what we are trying to accomplish) of a task. With Pomodoro, you attempt to define the scope before committing to the work.

Your mind is invaded by competing thoughts – Pomodoro trains you to focus on the current task (single task) and limits your working memory to finish the task at hand.

A complex and demanding methodology of working consumes your time – simplicity is at the core of Pomodoro, allowing you to focus your energy to get the work done.

You forget about the wholeness while in flow – Pomodoro allows you to focus on just this task (not the complexity of the whole project) while doing it. Better yet, the breaks allow you to see new patterns in the “wholeness” (or big picture) of the project.

Estimates are seen as promises – Deadlines or promises create artificial stress, thus, Pomodoro is a stress-free way of delivery by just focusing on one Pomodoro at a time.

The process is not based on facts – Unlike other ways of working, Pomodoro is based on facts (ie what interrupts you) and context to help you improve your focus.

Someone pushes work on you – Instead of others deciding what you should do, you decide your priorities and commit to it. This results in higher personal commitment.

Perfectionism prevents actions – we attempt to finish the best work (instead of finish a draft of the work). Pomodoro prevents against that by attempting to finish soon and then revise if need be.

Fear of failure or criticism is a mental impediment – pomodoro is personal as it attempts to hold you accountable for your work. Thus, it takes away the pressure for criticism or blame from others.

Context and Setup for Effective Pomodoro

Understanding how your brain works will help you understand why Pomodoro are an effective process for our brains;

Focusing (Flow): The prospects for getting into the flow are much better when you are rested, seated, and focused than when you are just hanging around and waiting for inspiration.

Let the Brain Refuel – Our brain is refueled every hour with almost 2 grams of glucose. Thus, it is best to work in focused sessions and breaks to allow the brain to not get fatigued.

Train your brain with a rhythm – Brain thrives on rhythms – breathing cycles, electrical activity of the heart, food, hormones, sleep, etc. Even in social lives we have rhythms – religious events, birthdays, etc. With Pomodoro, we can have effective rhythms for our working brain (focus and rest).

Brain prefers the same environment– For pomodoros, its best to keep the environment and routine the same so our brains can get into the flow without much confusion. It has been proven that our brain is comfortable in a known working environment.

Condition your brain to focus with Pomodoro – Unconditional reflexes (blinking) are associative. Conditional reflexes are formed – such as laying in bed to sleep. With pomodoro, you can train your brain (conditioned) to focus when the timer (with or without sound) starts.

Brain is noisy between right and left brain – Sometimes they interfere too much, thus, Pomodoro allows you to but both in harmony and get into a flow state.

Brain fatigues from hyperactivity – Overworking (not taking breaks) results in focus and energy resources depleting. Therefore, work at a sustainable pace (with pomdoro) rather than unsustainable burst of energy.

Brain has a limited working memory – Pomodoro helps you avoid having your limited working memory become a bottleneck (thinking about too many things). It limits the problems and focus by focusing on what is in the working memory (ie the current task).

Brain is an association machine – Short term memory is more of an audio recording whereas long-term is a mind map. We need to balance between the two to get results. The breaks and focus of Pomodoro allow us to do that.

It is better for your brain to view time as succession rather than duration – Treat time as succession (instead of duration which is unpredictable) to increase productivity. Our brains work better with succession – it gives focus and eliminates anxiety from producing the end result.

Brain and Dreaming – The brain discovers new relationships between collections of memory by dreaming (at night or during the day). Pomodoro, gives it that time to do so.

Brain needs offline time – Our brain works on a problem or task in the background, not only while we’re asleep but also in offline time when we’re awake. Giving ourselves the break (via Pomdoro) allows the brain to put forward good ideas and insights.

Brain absorbs and forms relational memory – which is the ability to generalize across existing personal knowledge is highly affected by offline time such as REM sleep or even small (awake) breaks from problem solving.

Flow and the brain – mental state characterized by following: clear goals, concentration and focus, a loss of the feeling of self-consciousness, a distorted sense of time, direct and immediate feedback, balance between ability and challenge, a sense of personal control, intrinsically rewarding, the merging of action and awareness.

Brain on procrastination – Why? Becomes procrastination feels like a reward. Remember that stress comes from the inside, and the cure is to find a starting point for your project.

Effect of heroism on the brain– don’t do overtime to get your undeserved hero status. Working overtime is like compromising on sleep, you might get ahead in the short-term (the task at hand) but your health will make you fall behind tomorrow.

Brain needs to be regulated – Relevant metrics are tracked during focused work of Pomdoro. This helps us regulate and learn about our brain.

Too many choices are bad for your brain – Constantly choosing all the time between all possible alternatives creates anxiety and disturbs our focus. Pomodoro (selecting priorities) ensures our brain is not in that unhealthy loop during work.

How to practice Pomodoro Technique

Below, we will breakdown the stages, the artifacts, and the how-to of the Pomodoro Technique.

Overview of the Stages of Pomodoro

Pick Your Priority Tasks (Planning) – Pick and commit to top tasks from your backlog (Activity Inventory) and add them to your “To Do Today” sheet. Each task should be defined and estimated (# of Pomodoro it will take)

Start the Work (Tracking) – Start the work with the Pomodoro timer and collect your metrics.

Daily Summary (Recording) – At the end of the day, you file your daily observations on the Records sheet. For example, # of pomodoro completed, estimates, interruptions etc.

Reflect on Performance (Processing) – After recording, you convert the raw data into information. For example, you get interrupted on average twice in a Pomodoro.

Improve the Process (Visualizing) – Organize the info in a way that helps you see how to improve your process. For example, defending your Pomodoro and letting others know not to disturb you.

Artifacts (tools) for conducting the Pomodoro

The above stages of the Pomodoro techniques are supported by the following artifacts (tools);

To do Today

List of your tasks (scoped and estimated) to be completed today

This list is your commitment for the day and acts as your goal for the day

Activity Inventory

Backlog of all the work you need to do in the near future

Records

Daily summary of performance metrics

Timer

To conduct the Pomodoro – including the breaks

3-Step Process of tools (Artifacts) to Conduct Pomodoro Technique

In addition to general benefits of Pomodoro, the above setup allows for;

Direct and immediate feedback – we get satisfaction when our investment of mental energy results in success. With the Pomodoro and focus on the current task, we immediately see how the past Pomodoro brought us closer to our goals.

Trains the prospective memory – Goals are connected to our will – if we are motivated to make things happen in the future (prospective memory). With Pomodoro’s tool of “To Do Today”, we focus on what we can do in the future.

Choose one single task and focus on that – to enable flow by focusing on one task, the above tools ensure we are setup to succeed – one task at a time.

Taking Breaks and Detaching

Breaks and detaching from the task at hand are a crucial part of Pomodoro. If you skip breaks, then quality of productivity will fall and result in attention-deficit (mental fatigue). On the other hand, if breaks are too long, then you will lose the rhythm and every Pomodoro start will feel like starting a new task.

Thus, between pomodoro’s, make sure to take a break and detach:

Pomodoro Breaks – move and do something different from the task at hand

Take a 5 minute break between every Pomodoro and a 20 minute break after 4 back-to-back Pomdoro

Goal is to recharge the brain and allow for background processing of previously assimilated info

As a guideline, do activities that require less effort. Things like sleeping (napping), meditating, walking around, drinking water, and looking out the window.

Don’t do activities that require more mental energy – talking to others, reading news, responding to emails, or doing more work.

Again, if we don’t break or detach, our stress system is not neutralized and results in a number of symptoms;

The thinking system in the brain stem is affected resulting in poor thinking

The senses of the limbic system and our rhythms are affective (to keep recharging between tasks)

At chronic stress levels, the capacity of your working memory and your ability to concentrate will fall

The joy of working will be transformed into anxiety – inspiration is altered to irritation

Dealing with Interruptions during Pomodoro

For most, interruptions (or distractions) will occur as we attempt to focus during the Pomodoro. That is okay as long as we have a strategy to deal with them. The interruptions are;

Internal Interruptions with Pomodoro

Internal interruptions happen from within – like remembering to do something, browsing the web, feeling hungry, or thinking about something else.

To deal with these kind of interruptions – accept them, record them (as a task in your backlog), and then continue to focus on your current task.

External Interruptions with Pomodoro

External interruptions are from other people – bosses, co-workers, family, or phone calls or emails.

To deal with these kind of interruptions – defend your Pomodoro and ask others that you will get back to them. Furthermore, make your Pomodoro workflow known to others so they can respect it.

Overtime, you will begin to become more aware of your interruptions (and their sources) and work towards minimizing them on your journey to mastering Pomodoro.

Advanced – Modify and Personalize Pomodoro

As you begin to master the discipline of working with Pomodoro, you may want to modify it. Changing parameters like work duration (longer than 25 minutes) and break duration.

However, experts caution against doing that too early. First, attempt to get disciplined with the standard Pomodoro, only after that attempt to change it. And if you do change it, record your metrics to know if you are still performing at metrics comparable to the standard Pomodoro (of 25 minutes).

There is strong proof and data suggesting that a pomodoro longer than 25-minutes is not optimal for most people, thus, better to go with that.

]]>https://jawwad.me/book-summary-pomodoro-technique-illustrated-staffan-noteberg/feed/03933Improving Focus with the constraint of Time – Pomodoro Techniquehttps://jawwad.me/improving-focus-with-the-constraint-of-time-pomodoro-technique/
https://jawwad.me/improving-focus-with-the-constraint-of-time-pomodoro-technique/#respondSat, 16 Feb 2019 13:42:51 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3914Have you felt like you don’t get something done (email, writing, chore, or reading) in its allocated time? Get distracted before you have finished it? Or find yourself multi-tasking and not completing either of the tasks? I have experienced those problems in getting work done. Thus, for the month of January & Februray 2019, I wanted to conduct an experiment to improve focus by using constraint of timers (aka pomodoro technique). As part of this experiment, I also read a book on Pomodoro and summarized that here – Book Summary of Pomodoro Technique Illustrated by Staffan Nöteberg. The Problem of Focus without a Constraint Through self-reflection and weekly review (via journaling), I consistently found that often times I was not able to accomplish a simple task (such as writing this article) despite having the time for it. Thus, I began the analysis of understanding the problem of what was going on. What I found is that just setting the goal or making the time for it in my calendar was sometimes not enough to ensure that the work was completed. What I found with the work that was successfully completed is that it had a constraint (aka deadline) attached to it). For […]

]]>Have you felt like you don’t get something done (email, writing, chore, or reading) in its allocated time? Get distracted before you have finished it? Or find yourself multi-tasking and not completing either of the tasks?

I have experienced those problems in getting work done. Thus, for the month of January & Februray 2019, I wanted to conduct an experiment to improve focus by using constraint of timers (aka pomodoro technique).

The Problem of Focus without a Constraint

Through self-reflection and weekly review (via journaling), I consistently found that often times I was not able to accomplish a simple task (such as writing this article) despite having the time for it. Thus, I began the analysis of understanding the problem of what was going on.

The Solution of Timers for Focus and Constraint

For example, as I write writing this article, I have a pomodoro-timer running that gets my brain to focus on doing the work:

Using a 25-min (pomodoro) timer to get the initial draft of this blog post completed.

Overall, here is how the start-to-finish of writing this article looked like;

1. Have a defined Outcome (or Goal) – In this case, “Publish the Monthly Experiment for Jan 2019” was the goal that was prepared before timers could be started.

2. Break the Goal Down into bursts of Focus (i-e Pomodoro or Timers) – In this step, I broke down the goal (Step 1 above) into bursts of focus (smaller goals) as follows;

First Timer (25-min) – Write the Outline of the Experiment

Break Time – 5 Min – Walk Around

Second Timer (25-min) – Write the Draft of the Experiment

Break TIme – 5 Min – Look out the Window

Third Timer (25-min) – Publish and Share the Experiment

The Setup: Use the pomodoro technique (25-min timers) with breaks in-between to get the work done.

Measurable Results of Using Timers – Pomodoro Technique

To date, I have been practicing the use of timers (pomodoro technique) for about 4 months. My results are as follows:

Results of using pomodoro Timers from November 2018 to January 2019.

Improved completion of tasks – Such as the completion and publishing of this article

Natural feedback cycles for getting things done – The timer serves as an accountability coach to get the mind to focus on getting the work done.

Less Mental Fatigue or Burnout – Given the defined break periods (after every 25 minutes), I am giving my brain time to recover before going back to focused-state.

Areas of Improvement in using Timers or Pomodoro Technique

As I develop the skill of focus with timers (pomodoro), following are areas of improvements that I hope to improve in the short-term:

Ability to stay focused on completion of the task once the timer has started – This discipline requires multiple variables to be taken care of – surrounding should be clear, no external distractions, no hungry or thirst to distract your mind etc.

Having clearly defined tasks with outcomes – For pomodoro to succeed one must have clearly defined task that needs to be accomplished.

Do not skip the pomodoro timer once it has been started – (See “Skipped Work Intervals” in the image above).

I hope to update this experiment or post a separate update once significant improvement has been made in the above.

Resources to further develop focus

Here are the resources I referred to during this experiment and hope re-visit as I continue to better develop the focus to getting the work done.

]]>https://jawwad.me/improving-focus-with-the-constraint-of-time-pomodoro-technique/feed/03914Recap of 2018’s Blog Postshttps://jawwad.me/recap-of-2018s-blog-posts/
https://jawwad.me/recap-of-2018s-blog-posts/#respondMon, 31 Dec 2018 15:07:23 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3881With 2018 coming to a close, here is a recap of the blogs on this forever learning blog. Doing this recap allows me to revisit the learnings and add more colour to it. Overall, I did much less public-facing blogging that I have been able to do in the previous years. The reason behind that is primarily because other projects have been consuming more of my time and focus. Planning ahead, I hope to increase my overall public-facing blogging output in 2018. Below, I have broken down the writings into personal and professional development. Personal Development Writings Personal development writings (and focus) remained on getting more disciplined in daily rituals. That is, instead of trying to choke on infinite personal development tips, focus on a few and get good with them via personal experiments. 1. Should you focus on quantity or quality of work? Blog Post: https://jawwad.me/quantity-or-quality-work/ Background and summary: In almost every aspect of life we are faced with a dilemma of quantity or quality. A lot of shallow friendships or fewer deep friendships? Alot of time-boxed creative output (blog posts, drawing, poetry, making things) or few quality outputs? Read a lot of books quickly or soak-in a few […]

]]>With 2018 coming to a close, here is a recap of the blogs on this forever learning blog. Doing this recap allows me to revisit the learnings and add more colour to it.

Overall, I did much less public-facing blogging that I have been able to do in the previous years. The reason behind that is primarily because other projects have been consuming more of my time and focus. Planning ahead, I hope to increase my overall public-facing blogging output in 2018.

Below, I have broken down the writings into personal and professional development.

Personal Development Writings

Personal development writings (and focus) remained on getting more disciplined in daily rituals. That is, instead of trying to choke on infinite personal development tips, focus on a few and get good with them via personal experiments.

Background and summary: In almost every aspect of life we are faced with a dilemma of quantity or quality. A lot of shallow friendships or fewer deep friendships? Alot of time-boxed creative output (blog posts, drawing, poetry, making things) or few quality outputs? Read a lot of books quickly or soak-in a few books?

In this blog post, I attempted to article and decide which approach is overall more beneficial in the long run (hint: it’s a combination).

Background and summary: Each year, I attempt to “abstract” away critical principles that can provide some guidance for the year ahead. This year, these are the 5 critical lessons I am hoping to put into practice in 2019.

Professional (Work) Related Writings

Professional (work) writings (and focus) remained on getting familiar with a new space – crytocurrency and product management (building the product that customers want).

Background and summary: One of my first reads as I began working in the crypto space as a product manager (help build what customers want). The book is a satisfactory introduction (however, a bit pro-bitcoin biased) to bitcoin as an investment asset/product.

In this blog post, I summarized to book in an attempt to understand their case for supporting and endorsing bitcoin as an investment asset.

Background and summary: Big acquisitions reveal important insights about the acquirer’s product strategy. Thus, when Microsoft acquired Github, I wanted to try to understand where Microsoft was coming for and what their product roadmap (and product-portfolio) looked like for the future.

In this blog post, I tried to justify that Microsoft has reaped its rewards from the window’s ecosystem (i-e Office, Serves, OSs, etc) and now want’s to be agnostic (i-e you use apple? No worries, we still want to see you products).

Background and summary: Similar to the acquisition note above, Google’s investment in JD.com (china’s second largest online retailer) was particularly intriguing. A direct hedge against amazon for e-commerce? I think so.

In this blog post, I attempted to explain how Google coud possibly benefit from this investment in the forseeable future.

]]>https://jawwad.me/recap-of-2018s-blog-posts/feed/038815 Critical Personal Lessons Learned in 2018https://jawwad.me/5-personal-lessons-learned-2018/
https://jawwad.me/5-personal-lessons-learned-2018/#respondThu, 27 Dec 2018 21:55:08 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3872As the year (2018) looms to its end, it is worthwhile to self-reflect on critical lessons learned during the year. Personally, I find no better way to appreciate the escaping finite time than to extract lessons learned from it. I find that such reflection allows us to see the big picture (instead of just the highs and lows of the year) and go into the next year informed on what worked last year. For 2018, here are the critical personal lessons I have learned (or re-learned). 1. Beauty of Constraints (Scarcity) over Abundance “to achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time [resources]” – Leonard Bernstein The status quo is often that there are not enough resources (time, money, etc.) to achieve the goals we have in life. Despite the seductive nature of that explanation, I find that constraints (and necessity) is responsible for fueling most of the goals that I have been able to accomplish. If you have ever crammed for an exam, winged a presentation, or have set challenging deadlines – you have most probably experienced the gift of constraints. It allows you to focus and discover creating solutions to get to […]

]]>As the year (2018) looms to its end, it is worthwhile to self-reflect on critical lessons learned during the year. Personally, I find no better way to appreciate the escaping finite time than to extract lessons learned from it.

I find that such reflection allows us to see the big picture (instead of just the highs and lows of the year) and go into the next year informed on what worked last year.

For 2018, here are the critical personal lessons I have learned (or re-learned).

1. Beauty of Constraints (Scarcity) over Abundance

“to achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time [resources]” – Leonard Bernstein

The status quo is often that there are not enough resources (time, money, etc.) to achieve the goals we have in life. Despite the seductive nature of that explanation, I find that constraints (and necessity) is responsible for fueling most of the goals that I have been able to accomplish.

If you have ever crammed for an exam, winged a presentation, or have set challenging deadlines – you have most probably experienced the gift of constraints. It allows you to focus and discover creating solutions to get to your goal.

For example, l began writing out of necessity of wanting to articulate myself – making sense of ever-increasing questions that popped up with life. Similarly, bootstrapping my business (constraint of money) allowed me to discover effective ways to launch a business without breaking the bank.

Looking ahead, I hope to give myself constraints for almost all the goals that I set for myself – health, professional, or personal. This will allow me to not get spoiled by the luxury of time (which is finite), money, or other excuses that are simply a distraction from getting your goal accomplished.

2. Power of small changes (experiments) over big changes

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.” – Bill Gates

Overnight success stories are mostly only true in Disney fantasies – the prince defeats the bad guy (professional goals), is flawlessly handsome (health), has lots of money (finances), and marries the most charming princess (relationships) – all within a few days if not weeks.

However, real life success stories take significantly longer and I believe can be equally rewarding for those who can persist. Our bias of planning fallacy makes us think that we can accomplish our master plans within a short amount of time. In planning as such, many of us fail in these grand plans and end up making no marginal improvements in any area of our life.

For example, don’t set yourself the big unaccomplishable goals of starting a multimillion dollar business or getting a lean athletic look like Bruce Lee in 2019. Rather, focus on getting one paying customer for your business or going to the gym once a week. From there fail forward, and make small improvements until you get to your goal – even if takes many years.

Looking ahead, I plan to continue make small improvements in various areas of life – aka personal experiments. With time, I realize that these small habit changes and improvements are what makes it possible for me to attempt a large goal I would have otherwise been intimidated by.

3. Having strong principles and self-awareness to guide decision-making

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

For example, are you going to be an average performer at work or will you seek out incremental improvement in your craft? Now, here is the case-in-point, all of us make this decision explicitly or implicitly – but what differs amongst people is their level of self-awareness and principles guiding them along the way.

4. Ability to focus and do the (important) work

Because if you’re worrying about yourself—if you’re thinking: ‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’ — then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done.” – Barrack Obama (Source)

To do anything of value, we are hard-wired to feel insecure about it. Will people like what I write? Will I get customers for my business? Am I built to do this? In the face of these invisible fear, we end up deserting the work.

As the quote above suggests, we need to simply focus on doing quality work and not our insecurities (which are separate from the work). Its better to put out work that you may feel insecure about rather than not do it at all.

5. Carving out time to reflect and plan ahead

The unexamined life is not worth living. – Plato

I believe a lot of unnecessary anxiety and anxiousness can be eliminated if we take the time to attend to our brain. Brain, like our bodies, accumulates dirt (thoughts, fears, unresolved issues, to-do list etc). Yet, we don’t give our brain a shower (reflect and plan ahead).

During the year, I have (once again) realized the value of maintaining a journal, meditating, going for walks, swim, exercise, blogging (including this post) and getting quality sleep. Many areas of life are unpredictable – especially health and relationships – thus, with constant self-reflection and planning ahead we can have a plan that adjusts with our life.

Going forward, I hope to try my best to defend this time to reflect and plan ahead – especially when schedule “appears” busy (which inevitable always does).

Lastly, credit and thank you goes out to my friends, mentors, family, and subscribers who have contributed to the above learnings and growth in 2018. All of you know who you are. I could not have simply learned these lessons alone.

Looking forward to another year of 2018 together. If interested, here are my reflections from 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.

Part 1 – What? Understanding the Foundations of Cryptoassets

Chapter 1 – Bitcoin and the Financial Crisis of 2008

The chapter explains the events leading upto the creation of Bitcoin (the platform) and bitcoin (the currency). Coincidentally, the creation of Bitcoin occurred around the same time as the Financial Crisis of 2008.

“Due to the distributed transparency and immutable audit log of a blockchain, each loan issued and packaged into different CMOs could have been documented on a single blockchain. This would have allowed any purchaser to view a coherent record of CMO ownership and the status of each mortgage within.”

Authors put forward an argument that the financial crisis could have been prevented with the use of blockchain (an underlying technology enabling Bitcoin).

“You will not find a solution to political problems in cryptography … but we can win a major battle in the arms race and gain a new territory of freedom for several years. Governments are good at cutting off the heads of centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.” Satoshi (unidentified founder of Bitcoin), wrote to his email list suggesting that he created Bitcoin as an alternative system to government’s top-down control.

“Such decentralized autonomy was foundational to the early days of the Internet as well, where each node on the network was an autonomous agent that corresponded with other agents through shared protocols.” Authors hint how “decentralization” was the key to success of the internet. AOL’s centralized internet lost against the decentralized internet. Is decentralization of the financial system (or currency) comparable to the internet?

Chapter 2 – The Basics of Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology

Bitcoin (with capital B) represents the software side of anything related to “Bitcoin”.

bitcoin (with lower b) represents the currency.

Blockchain (mostly) represents Bitcoin’s blockchain or an alterations of the original.

“In July 2016, researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Deutsche Bundesbank (Germany’s central bank), and the University of Wisconsin at Madison released the paper ‘The Evolution of the Bitcoin Economy.’” The paper concludes that “The result of this work shows that the Bitcoin economy, rather than being a fleeting and frivolous pursuit, has grown and matured over the few years that it has been operational, with distinct patterns of behavior among its most influential entities and participants.

“Bitcoin fits these thematic molds. It allows a global transaction to be settled in an hour as opposed to a couple of days” Banks are often limited to doing transfers during business hours. Could the immediate settlement of bitcoin provide it the advantage over fiat money?

“Uber, Airbnb, and LendingClub … decentralized services that were easily understandable and had precedent for being peer-to-peer” However, Bitcoin has a an impressive challenge, ““Decentralizing a currency, without a top-down authority, requires coordinated global acceptance of a shared means of payment and store of value.”

There are two types of blockchains – private and public. The difference between public and private blockchains is similar to that between the Internet (unauthorized access) and intranets (authorized access-only).

Private systems, on the other hand, employ a bouncer at the door. Only entities that have the proper permissions can become part of the network

Bitcoin’s Ecosystem is similar to a computer’s ecosystem. There are end-users (users of bitcoin), then there are apps (like in app store that use bitcoin), then there is Bitcoin (bitcoin’s software) which acts as the operating system and lastly there are miners (who are the hardware).

“While there is merit to many of these solutions, some claim the greatest revolution has been getting large and secretive entities to work together, sharing information and best practices, which will ultimately lower the cost of services to the end consumer.”

Chapter 3 – “Blockchain, Not Bitcoin?”

This chapter discusses the general interest in blockchain (underlying ledger) and bitcoin (currency) separately.

“The China ruling, combined with the FBI’s capture of the creator of the Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht,6 and soon thereafter the collapse of the biggest exchange at the time, Mt. Gox,7 put many bitcoin investors on edge as to its long-term viability in the face of government and law enforcement crackdowns.”

But to Bitcoiners it had always been “bitcoin and blockchain.” The asset, bitcoin, was what incentivized an ecosystem of players—miners, developers, companies, and users—to secure and build upon Bitcoin’s blockchain, delivering means of exchange and store of value services to the world. (bitcoin and blockchain? How can they succeed alone? )

Ethereum’s goal was to serve as a decentralized world computer, whereas Bitcoin aimed to be a decentralized world currency.

It is this second movement that we will investigate further in this chapter, as it’s important for the innovative investor to understand why some people will claim bitcoin and other cryptoassets aren’t needed to keep their implementations secure and functioning: welcome to the world of private blockchains.

The combination of Masters, Bloomberg, and the Economist led to a spike in interest in blockchain technology that set (People that endorsed blockchain )

“A private blockchain is typically used to expedite and make existing processes more efficient, thereby rewarding the entities that have crafted the software and maintain the computers. In other words, the value creation is in the cost savings, and the entities that own the computers enjoy these savings. The entities don’t need to get paid in a native asset as reward for their work, as is the case with public blockchains.”

“Over time, miner compensation will shift from the issuance of new bitcoin to transaction fees, and if global adoption is great enough, then transaction fees will be sufficient to sustain miners.

Chapter 4 – The Taxonomy of Cryptoassets

This chapter explains the taxonomy of crypto assets – just like there is taxonomy of assets in the real-world.

Cryptotokens are in the earliest stage of development, and will likely be the last to gain traction as they require a robust cryptocurrency and cryptocommodity infrastructure to be built before they can reliably function.

“Just as in the physical world, where currencies and commodities fuel an economy to create finished goods and services, so too in the digital world the infrastructures provided by cryptocurrencies and cryptocommodities are coming together to support the aforementioned finished-product digital goods and services.

“In an increasingly digital world, it only makes sense that we have digital commodities, such as compute power, storage capacity, and network bandwidth.”

“We would not classify the majority of cryptoassets as currencies, but rather most are either digital commodities (cryptocommodities), provisioning raw digital resources, or digital tokens (cryptotokens), provisioning finished digital goods and services”

“While compute, storage, and bandwidth are not yet widely referred to as commodities, they are building blocks that are arguably just as important as our physical commodities, and when provisioned via a blockchain network, they are most clearly defined as cryptocommodities”

Altcoins are cryptocurrencies that are slight modifications to the Bitcoin.

Litecoin was created by Charlie Lee keep currency in its peer-to-peer roots by using less intensive proof-of-work hashing algorithm.

Ripple is a cryptocurrency created in 2004 by Ryan Fugger. “Ripple has since pivoted away from being a transaction mechanism for the common person and instead now “enables banks to send real-time international payments across networks.”

Example of National Currency: “To this day, auroracoin takes the cake as the cryptocurrency with the grandest plan for widespread usage throughout one country. Icelanders were given a cryptocurrency with little education and means to use it. Unsurprisingly, the value of the asset collapsed and most considered it dead.”

“Currently, three notable cryptocurrencies put privacy and anonymity first. In order of launch, they are Dash, Monero, and Zcash”

“A danger for bitcoin, especially for balances known to have been used for illegal activity, is that if an exchange or other service blacklists that balance, then that balance becomes illiquid and arguably less valuable than other balances of bitcoin. While subtle, losing fungibility could be the demise of a digital and distributed currency, hurting the value of all units, not just the ones used for illegal activity”

Chapter 5 – Cryptocommodities and Cryptotokens

Having understood cryptocurrencies, this chapter focus on cryptocommodities and cryptotokens.

“…the largest cryptocommodity, Ethereum, is a decentralized world computer upon which globally accessible and uncensored applications can be built.

“… smart contracts are […] conditional transactions because they refer to logic written in code that has “IF this, THEN that” conditions.”

Bitcoin’s limited functionality, turning to Bitcoin’s blockchain as a system of record and means of security (e.g., Counterparty), or build an entirely different blockchain system

Ether is a necessary element—a fuel—for operating the distributed application platform Ethereum. It is a form of payment made by the clients of the platform to the (How ether and etherium work together )

“Open sourcing this process and running it on top of Ethereum’s world computer allows everyday investors to put their capital in an insurance pool to earn returns from the purchasers of insurance premiums that are looking for coverage from certain events. Everyone trusts the system because it runs in the open and is automated by code. ”

“We refer to many of these dApp native units as cryptotokens, while others refer to them as appcoins.”

“like Golem, which aims to be a supercomputer for compute intensive problems. The difference boils down to whether a raw digital resource is being provisioned (cryptocommodity) or if the dApp is providing a consumer-facing finished digital good or service (cryptotoken).”

“While many merchants understandably complain about credit card fees of 2 to 3 percent, the “platform fees” of Airbnb, Uber, and similar platform services are borderline egregious. Many of the cryptotoken systems that are imitating such platforms plan to take a fee that is an order of magnitude less, using underlying blockchain architectures to facilitate the decentralized transfer of value and services.”

Cryptotokens can facilitate prediction markets. The company Augur is worth noting. “Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, which is one of the largest companies in the cryptoasset sector, has called it an “awesome project with huge potential.”36 Even Vitalik Buterin acknowledged its potential when he called it an “Uber for knowledge”.”

Gnosis, held a crowdsale in April 2017 raising money at an implied valuation north of $300 million.

Rootstock, similar to Counterparty, intends to run on Bitcoin. Rootstock is led by Sergio Lerner, who specialized in IT security for much of his life, and when he first came to Bitcoin audited many aspects of the code. He now leads a team that is basically building Ethereum on Bitcoin, and the system will be compatible with all dApps that run on Ethereum. Just as Ethereum has ether, Rootstock will have its own native currency called RSK.

Part II – Why – Investment Portfolio Management with Bitcoin

Part two of the book focuses on “returning the to fundamentals of investment theory [that] will allow investors to properly position their overarching portfolio to take advantage of the growth of crytoassets”

This chapter returns to the fundamentals of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). Authors argue that “the potential of bitcoin and other crypto assets is so great that we believe they should be considered an asset class of their own.” They suggest that a portion of investments of a portfolio be allocated to such assets.

Chapter 7 – The Most Compelling Alternative Asset of the Twenty-First Century

This chapter studies the historical data and concludes that Bitcoin has been “the most compelling alternative asset of the twenty-first century”.

Chapter 8 – Defining Cryptoassets as a New Asset Class

Crypto assets are most closely classified a consumable and transferable assets.

Furthermore, the authors suggest that the crypto asset is to be evaluated as any other asset class.

Chapter 9 – The Evolution of Cryptoasset Market Behavior

This chapter discusses how the crypto asset market behavior changes over time so that the investor can make an informed decision. Authors conclude that “we’re seeing maturation of these assets and greater overalls with others, it’s fair to consider bitcoin and crypto assets to be in their early stages.”

Chapter 10 and 11 – The Speculation of Crowds , “This Time Is Different” Thinking, and Ponzi Schemes

Many “see cryptoassets as speculative pump-and-dump vehicles or worse”. Next two chapters [10 and 11] will address these arguments by putting cryptoassets in the context of the history of past investment bubbles, scams, and speculation.

There are five main “patterns that lead to market destabilizing:”

The speculation of the crowds – “There is intelligent speculation as there is intelligent investing. But there are many ways in which speculation may be unintelligent” (Graham, The Intelligent Investor)

Ponzi Schemes – “The idea is simple: new investors pay old investors. As long as there are enough new investors, old investors will continue to be rewarded handsomely.”

Misleading information from assets issuers – deceptive or misleading information from the issues of the asset.

Cornering (“pump and dump”) – refers to when one more investors work to drive a price of an asset up or down significantly.

In chapters 10 and 11, authors conclude that these unstable market characteristics are not unique to Cryptoasset markets. Rather the tradition asset market (stock exchanges etc) have and are prove to the same weaknesses. It is only a matter of time and evolution that these crypto assets reach maturity.

Part III – How – Approach to adding crytoasset to a Portfolio

This chapter puts forwards an analysis and valuation framework for crypto assets – which can be done by the founding characteristics of a crypto asset:

White Paper – Look for clarity and cohesiveness in the white paper. Furthermore, evaluate the business potential of the problem and technical details.

Decentralization edge – Does this project really need a blockchain?

Valuation – understand both the utility and speculative value of the crypto asset.

Community and developers – they work together keep the crypto asset alive. Research the commitment level, background, past-experience, and dedication of the community from online networks like reddit, conferences, etc.

Relation to digital siblings – how does it relate to another asset? Is it a fork? If so, what aspects are being changed and why?

Issuance model – what is the supply schedule? “If a crypto asset has a high rate of supply issuance, as bitcoin did in its early days, then that can error the asset’s value if its unity isn’t growing in line with expectations.” Also, consider if the distribution is fair.

This chapter provides guidelines for investigating the network health of crypto assets. Network health is an indicator of its future potential.

Operating Fundamentals

Miners – a strong network of miners is essential. They should be decentralized (not run my one large corporation).

Software Developers – look at developer activity metrics (commits to code, comments, updates etc) to get an idea of the commitment of the developers

Company Support – What companies are accepting the cryptocurrency? What investors are supporting the crypto asset? Look for external organizations supporting the crypto asset.

User Adoption – Look for traction metrics of number of users, number of transactions propagated on the blockchain, dollar value of those transactions, valuations metrics (network value of crypto asset divided by daily dollar transaction volume)

Technical Analysis

Support and Resistance – Chart a support and resistance graph for the crypto asset. Allows you to study the behaviour of price movements in the past and attempt to predict the future.

Simple Moving Average – Chart a simple moving average graph for the crypto asset. It allows you to smooth out the price trend over a period of time.

Pay attention to Volume – If the price increase with volume, it is sustainable. However, without volume increases it could be speculative and short lived.

Chapter 16 – The Wild World of ICOs

“Another exciting part of the crypto asset world for an […] investor is the ability to get involved directly with the developer teams, launching crypto assets from the beginning.”

ICO stands for initial coin offering (or as authors put it, initial crypto asset offering). ICOs offer the ability (yet to be regulated by a governing body) for anyone to invest in a project as compared to only the elites or venture capitalists.

ICOs are still uncertain as they are yet to be commented on by the regulators about its nature and classification of the assets.

Chapter 17 – Preparing Current Portfolio for Blockchain Disruption

This chapter guides the reader to revisit their current investment approach knowing what the crypto asset knowledge is capable of.

“When considering investing in crypto assets, innovative investor need to not only consider an individual investment (like bitcoin or ether) but also how this new asset class and overall concept of blockchain could impact other assets within the portfolio.”

For example, how will bitcoin influence remittances (sending money abroad), business-to-business payments, and insurance? Each of these categories have big players such as Western Union, Visa etc. The authors advise the reader to get familiar with Clayton Christensen’s work on Innovation to make educated decisions about with business are at the risk of getting disrupted.

Chapter 18 – The Future of Investing is Here

The last chapter concluded with optimistic views of the crypto asset world. Authors suggest that millennials are more receptive to the philosophy of the crypto world and could be the single most important factor in driving the “future of investing”.

Authors are optimistic that Millennials will take a wholesaling approach to portfolio management by educating themselves about the crypto space. Not only will they be users but also evangelists of this new asset class.

Lastly, the authors conclude by saying that given the infancy of this field, the reader must be dedicated to constantly keep learning more about this space as the history unfolds.

]]>https://jawwad.me/book-summary-cryptoassets-the-innovative-investors-guide-to-bitcoin-and-beyond/feed/03813Understanding Google’s Investment in JD.comhttps://jawwad.me/understanding-google-investment-jd-com/
https://jawwad.me/understanding-google-investment-jd-com/#respondWed, 20 Jun 2018 21:06:05 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3798Google just made a move to rival Amazon by investing $0.55B in the Chinese online retailer, JD.COM (second largest chinese online retailer after Alibaba). Why is it interesting? Because its Advertising (Google) + Retail (JD.com) coming together to form a mutually beneficial partnership. Partnership Benefits for Google and JD.com This is how each party WINS: “Relevant” advertising of Products If Google know’s what JD.com customers like and buy, it can advertise relevant products to the mass population. Once the interest is generated, JD.com takes care of logistics – delivery, customer service etc. Think about a (possibly) more robust recommendation engine than Amazon’s product recommendations. Search Engine Exposure JD.com’s product will be listed on Google’s product search engine – google shopping. This will expand JD’s reach outside of China. Customers search the web will be presented with the option to purchase the product from JD.com (and if they don’t, google can re-target them with relevant advertisements). Increased Competition Against Rivals It is no secret that Walmart and Google have teamed up to compete with Amazon. Thus, alongside Google, Walmart is also invested in JD.com’s success alongside. Just like they both are in Flipkart of India. This deal gives google and Walmart a better […]

Why is it interesting? Because its Advertising (Google) + Retail (JD.com) coming together to form a mutually beneficial partnership.

Partnership Benefits for Google and JD.com

This is how each party WINS:

“Relevant” advertising of Products

If Google know’s what JD.com customers like and buy, it can advertise relevant products to the mass population. Once the interest is generated, JD.com takes care of logistics – delivery, customer service etc. Think about a (possibly) more robust recommendation engine than Amazon’s product recommendations.

Search Engine Exposure

JD.com’s product will be listed on Google’s product search engine – google shopping. This will expand JD’s reach outside of China. Customers search the web will be presented with the option to purchase the product from JD.com (and if they don’t, google can re-target them with relevant advertisements).

Increased Competition Against Rivals

It is no secret that Walmart and Google have teamed up to compete with Amazon. Thus, alongside Google, Walmart is also invested in JD.com’s success alongside. Just like they both are in Flipkart of India.

This deal gives google and Walmart a better attempt to compete with Amazon. Furthermore, it gives JD.com a better attempt to compete with Alibaba – the market share leader in china.

]]>https://jawwad.me/understanding-google-investment-jd-com/feed/03798Book Summary: Designing Your Life by Dave Evanshttps://jawwad.me/book-summary-designing-your-life-by-dave-evans/
https://jawwad.me/book-summary-designing-your-life-by-dave-evans/#commentsSat, 09 Jun 2018 11:14:14 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3780The book, Designing Your Life by Dave Evans and Bill Burnett, aims to use the framework of design thinking to address the “wicked problem” (i.e big problems) of designing your life. I was particularly intrigued by the book due to its focus on using the journal and writing as a tool to designing your life. Below is the book summary and notes by each chapter of the book. Start Where You Are “Start” by reflecting on the core areas of your life (link to article) – health, work, play, and love. To do that: Write a few sentences reflecting on each of the four areas Health Work Play Love Rank where you are (0 to full) on each of the gauge Ask if there is a (design) problem that you’d like to tackle Now, ask yourself if your “problem” is a gravity problem or wicked problem. Gravity Problem – Anything that is not actionable is a gravity problem. This can include complaining or fighting the reality. For example, “Poets just don’t make enough money in our culture. I want to be a poet and what can I do about it?” is a gravity problem. If you became a poet, you […]

Start Where You Are

“Start” by reflecting on the core areas of your life (link to article) – health, work, play, and love. To do that:

Write a few sentences reflecting on each of the four areas

Health

Work

Play

Love

Rank where you are (0 to full) on each of the gauge

Ask if there is a (design) problem that you’d like to tackle

Now, ask yourself if your “problem” is a gravity problem or wicked problem.

Gravity Problem – Anything that is not actionable is a gravity problem. This can include complaining or fighting the reality. For example, “Poets just don’t make enough money in our culture. I want to be a poet and what can I do about it?” is a gravity problem. If you became a poet, you could fight this “reality” by increasing demand and value of poetry in the society or door knocking to sell your poetry.

Wicket Problem – Problems that are resistant to an immediate resolution. Problems life career and life philosophy.

Building a Compass

Now that you know “where you are starting from”, its time that you build a compass (a conscious set of values) that will guide you through answering big and fundamental questions in life.

Building the compass is composed of two things:

Workview – This will help you discover and answer questions like “what is work for? Why do you do it? What makes work good?”. The goal is to develop a philosophy of work, you will be more satisfied of it and less likely to feel that others are designing your life.

Lifeview – Like worldview, life view is your ideas about the world and how it works by answering questions like “What gives life meaning? What makes your life worthwhile or valuable? How does your life compare to the world?”

The goal is that your life feels coherent and you can judge a situation with your compass. For example, if you work at a company that does not value work-life balance and makes you work overtime, you can compare that against your compass and decide accordingly. Do you want to be a workaholic while sacrificing other areas of life?

Once you have articulated your workview and life view, answer the following questions:

Where do your views on work and life compliment each other?

Where do they clash?

Does one drive the other? How?

Wayfinding

“Wayfinding is the ancient art of figuring out where you are going when you don’t actually know your destination. For wayfinding, you need a compass and you need a direction. Not a map—a direction. ”

With the compass, you should pay attention to the clues in front of you – clues of engagement and energy. You can do this by keeping a “Good Time Journal” where you track your engagement and energy levels.

As you work on your reflections in the Good Time Journal, trying using the AEIOU method to get the more of your observations. AEIOU stands for:

Activities – What were you actually doing? Was this a structured or an unstructured activity? Did you have a specific role to play or just a participant?

Environments – What kind of place was it? How did it make you feel?

Interactions – What were you interacting with – people or machines? Was it formal or informal?

Objects – Were you interacting with any objects or devices? What were the objects that created or supported your feeling engaged?

Users – Who else was there and what role did they play?

Getting Unstuck

Inevitably people get stuck in their lives. Stuck in a career that they don’t like or attend school without knowing their interests. When stuck, its best not to jump to your next best option but rather to generate lots of ideas and pick the best one.

“In life design, more is better, because more ideas equal access to better ideas, and better ideas lead to a better design”

To get unstuck:

Complete a “Good Time Journal” for three weeks

Create a mind map for three activities – one with the highesh engagement, highest energy, and one which had the highest flow

Look at the outer ring of each mind map and pick three things that “jump out at you”

Create a role for each of those things and job description. Also, try some sketching.

When stuck, use a mindmap to generate ideas to explore as possible solutions. Source: Desinging Your Life

Design Your Lives

In planning our lives, we tend to believe that there is ONE best possible life that I should plan and work toward. However, in reality, there are multiple different lives (with plans) that we can design and build.

To create potential alternative plans for your life, do the following:

Create three alternative five-year plans, using the “Odyssey Plan” worksheet.

Give each alternative a six word title and write three questions that arise

Complete each gouge on the dashboard – rating each alternative for resources, likability, confidence, and coherence.

Present your plan to another person. Note how you get energized by each alternative

Prototyping

With your alternative life plans, its time to prototype and gather info on your plans. To do that, simply:

Review your “Odyssey Plan” questions

To help answer those questions, plan for:

Prototype Conversations – Have conversations with other people (their life story or life design) who have traveled a similar plan.

Prototype Experiences – Have experiences that will make you learn through direct encounters. These can include, unpaid internship, volunteering, personal projects, etc.

If stuck, get feedback from someone else to guide you.

Build and enhance your prototypes by conducting conversations and experiences.

How Not to Get a Job

The right way to find a job is to focus on the needs of the hiring manager (instead of your need to get a job).

“Awareness is key to life design, and this is true especially when you are designing your career. If you are aware of the process involved in hiring, in writing job descriptions, in reading resumes, in interviewing (from the employer’s perspective), your success rate in getting a job offer goes way up.”

Designing Your Dream Job

When designing your dream job, you should reframe your thinking as follows:

Stop thinking that there is a destination of a “dream job” out there waiting for you. Rather, you come across your dream job through a process of actively self-reflecting (through journaling) and making your next career decision accordingly.

Stop viewing yourself as someone looking for job. Instead have the mindset of “looking for offers” that allow you to explore and get closer to the dream job.

Choosing Happiness

This section broadly touches on a few tips to choose happiness in your life.

Don’t aim to make the right choice every single time but rather a better choice that is informed through your self-reflection.

Don’t confuse happiness with having it all! Rather, happiness is letting go of things you don’t need or like.

Don’t agonize over decision. Be decisive and informed in your decision making

Failure Immunity

This chapter aims to build a “failure immunity” mindset so one can begin to view failures as something to learn from.

To build a failure immunity:

Log your failures to extract the most insight from them

Build a habit of converting failures to growth by doing this once or twice a month

Building a Team

This chapter highlights the importance of mentors and friends that you can reach out for help and reflection. Rarely do we ever overcome obstacles alone, thus, reach out to people you trust to guide you along the way.

Conclusion – A Well-Designed Life

“Dysfunctional Belief: I finished designing my life; the hard work is done, and everything will be great.

Reframe: You never finish designing your life—life is a joyous and never-ending design project of building your way forward.”

Additional Notes (by Jawwad)

Attempt to bring and use these templates in journaling habit – as that is the tool I use for timely reflection.

]]>https://jawwad.me/book-summary-designing-your-life-by-dave-evans/feed/13780Understanding Microsoft’s Acquisition of Windowshttps://jawwad.me/understanding-microsoft-acquisition-windows/
https://jawwad.me/understanding-microsoft-acquisition-windows/#respondMon, 04 Jun 2018 15:18:29 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3770Microsoft is acquiring Github. Having followed Nadella's strategy, I am not surprised. Here are three points to understand why this is a win-win!

1. The End of Windows Ecosystem

Remember, that Microsoft has already lost the phone operating system battle (to iOS and Android) and the cloud operating system battle (to Linux). Now, they don’t even have a dedicated Windows OS devision. The company is realizing that they need to be modular (sell things across devices and OS) instead of a cohesive ecosystem (ie a full-windows tech stack).

2. The Start of Agnostic Tools

Microsoft wants to sell agnostic tools so customers can build on anyone’s platform, and while that includes Windows, it by necessity is not limited by it. For example, Office for iPad and Android etc.

3. Connect with Innovators and Creators

Github is almost always the STARTING point in the customers buying journey. If Microsoft has goodwill with these customers early on, it is likely that these small businesses will “buy” more of Microsoft’s services. The combination of the above 3 points is what makes Microsoft exciting as it has realized the day and age of “Windows Platform” has long gone and its time for “Microsoft” to favour all platforms – including Windows.

]]>https://jawwad.me/understanding-microsoft-acquisition-windows/feed/03770Should you focus on quantity or quality of work?https://jawwad.me/quantity-or-quality-of-work/
https://jawwad.me/quantity-or-quality-of-work/#respondSun, 22 Apr 2018 22:33:24 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3755Anyone who produces something, including myself, experiences the conflict between the quality and the quantity of work. Should I produce more work (quantity) or better (quality) work? Whether it be writing a new blog post, sending another email, reading more books, another sales call or meeting more people. If one focuses on the quality of work alone, they risk not producing enough, taking too long, or procrastinating. On the other hand, if one focuses on quantity alone they may risk producing low quality of work. Hence, the question becomes – how do you maximize the benefits of both the quality and the quantity of work? A Case for Quality of Work In my experience you should focus on the quantity of work and the quality will take care of itself. Furthermore, instead of thinking about quality and quantity as two things that can’t be done together, we need to view quantity as a way to get to quality. Perhaps, it is best captured by the old saying “practice (quantity) makes perfect (quality)” Here are some examples to demonstrate my perspective: if you’re a writer, increase your quantity of writing. Once mastered, begin to sharpen your skills to improve the quality. […]

]]>Anyone who produces something, including myself, experiences the conflict between the quality and the quantity of work. Should I produce more work (quantity) or better (quality) work? Whether it be writing a new blog post, sending another email, reading more books, another sales call or meeting more people.

If one focuses on the quality of work alone, they risk not producing enough, taking too long, or procrastinating. On the other hand, if one focuses on quantity alone they may risk producing low quality of work.

Hence, the question becomes – how do you maximize the benefits of both the quality and the quantity of work?

A Case for Quality of Work

In my experience you should focus on the quantity of work and the quality will take care of itself. Furthermore, instead of thinking about quality and quantity as two things that can’t be done together, we need to view quantity as a way to get to quality. Perhaps, it is best captured by the old saying “practice (quantity) makes perfect (quality)”

Here are some examples to demonstrate my perspective:

if you’re a writer, increase your quantity of writing. Once mastered, begin to sharpen your skills to improve the quality.

If you’re a cold caller or a salesperson, increase the quantity of phone calls. But, with each phone call get better at delivering your pitch or better resonating with your prospects.

If you are an entrepreneur, focus on quantity of problems or products that you launch. But, with each launch learn from your market feedback so you can make your next launch or product idea more successful.

I have experienced the above examples myself as someone who likes to produce work. Additionally, here are four more reasons why I think the work on quantity over quality pays off.

Eliminate Procrastination by focusing on quantity of work

If you finish things last-minute, you know the power of deadlines to eliminate procrastination. Thus, if we focus on quality (without a deadline), we invite procrastination. Instead, focus on quantity of work with reasonable deadlines so that you can produce more work.

Maximize learning by focusing on quantity of work

When you produce less, you learn less. The fewer lines you write, phone calls you make, the pictures you take, the people you meet – the fewer experiences you will have to learn from. Thus, by focusing on quantity of work you maximize your learning – which then fuels better quality of work.

Focusing on quantity reduces work anxiety

Ansel Adams, often said “the perfect is the enemy of the good”, his point being that if he waited for everything in the scene to be exactly right (scene, lighting, location, etc.) he would never take a photograph. He would needlessly worry and get anxious over getting everything right.

Instead, he focused on producing work – the of photographs. Afterwards, with the quantity of photographs he improved the chances of creating good quality photographs.

Focusing on quantity creates good habits

By focusing on quantity of work, you develop habits of doing the work and discipline. These habits alone are valuable skills to help you succeed. Overtime, your craft and work gets better and these habits take you forward.

Going forward, I hope to focus more on the quantity of work and the achieve quality through the process of constantly creating. Have you ever experienced the dilemma between quality and quantity? If so, please share your experience.

]]>https://jawwad.me/quantity-or-quality-of-work/feed/03755Summary of Health for Hire by Christensen Institutehttps://jawwad.me/summary-health-for-hire-christensen-institute/
https://jawwad.me/summary-health-for-hire-christensen-institute/#respondTue, 19 Dec 2017 11:55:09 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3565Clayton Christensen’s Institute has published insightful reports for aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs and leaders. In an earlier blog post, I summarized Christensen’s report on healthcare innovation, “How disruptive innovation can finally revolutionize Healthcare” (2017). In this blog post, I will summarize another one of their reports on healthcare, “Health for hire: unleashing patient potential to reduce chronic disease costs” (October 2017) Executive summary and overview of the report America’s epidemic of chronic disease affects more than half of the American population and consumes 86% of the $3.2 trillion spent each year on care. “To prevent and reduce the cost of managing chronic disease, the system must learn to facilitate change in individual behavior, which has the greatest impact on health of any contributing factor, including healthcare.” “A jobs-based approach to healthcare delivery is particularly suited to chronic disease management, for five reasons: Takes into account patients’ full capacity to change, Works with patients’ existing beliefs about health Illuminates the broader determinants of individual health status Clarifies the real competition to healthy behavior Shifts units of performance from outcomes to progress” The report further quotes research that supports “health-centric purpose”: Conclusion of “Health for Hire” Report The “health for hire” report concludes by […]

Executive summary and overview of the report

America’s epidemic of chronic disease affects more than half of the American population and consumes 86% of the $3.2 trillion spent each year on care. “To prevent and reduce the cost of managing chronic disease, the system must learn to facilitate change in individual behavior, which has the greatest impact on health of any contributing factor, including healthcare.”

“A jobs-based approach to healthcare delivery is particularly suited to chronic disease management, for five reasons:

Takes into account patients’ full capacity to change,

Works with patients’ existing beliefs about health

Illuminates the broader determinants of individual health status

Clarifies the real competition to healthy behavior

Shifts units of performance from outcomes to progress”

The report further quotes research that supports “health-centric purpose”:

Conclusion of “Health for Hire” Report

The “health for hire” report concludes by reiterating the point that America’s epidemic of chronic disease is due to a “gap between the kind of care chronically ill people need, and the episodic, acute care or traditional healthcare system is designed to provide.”

It encourages leaders and entrepreneurs in healthcare to learn from the example of Iora Health, Weight Watchers, Bromley by Bow Centre, and other innovations. It emphasizes that “using the theory of jobs to be done, healthcare innovators can bridge this gap by creating health solutions that people have both the will and capacity to embrace, and which unleash their potential to manage their health more effectively and independently.”

]]>https://jawwad.me/summary-health-for-hire-christensen-institute/feed/03565Summary of How Disruptive Innovation Can Finally Revolutionize Healthcarehttps://jawwad.me/summary-disruptive-innovation-revolutionize-healthcare/
https://jawwad.me/summary-disruptive-innovation-revolutionize-healthcare/#respondMon, 18 Dec 2017 12:53:42 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3562Clayton Christensen’s report on healthcare innovation, “How disruptive innovation can finally revolutionize Healthcare” (2017) is an insightful read for aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs and leaders. Breakdown and Focus of the Report The report is broken down into two parts; Why has the healthcare been so resistant to disruption? This focuses on “why disruption is not taken place in the delivery practices of hospitals and physician groups” Where disruptive solutions are taking root – The part 2 “zeros in on how disruptive solutions have begun to improve health while lowering costs for significant populations” The focus of the report is “on transforming the delivery system: the networks of physicians, clinics and hospitals that account for heart of the challenge.” The target audience are providers, payers, legislators, and innovators in healthcare. Part 1 – Why has the healthcare been so resistant to disruption? In this part the report highlights the following key points: Flawed Incentive in the System “industry experts have lambasted the existing fee-for-service model in healthcare. The drawback has been correctly diagnosed: when doctors and hospitals are paid for office visits, procedures and tests, they will aim to generate more of those, whether they are absolutely needed.” However, “Changing the payment […]

Breakdown and Focus of the Report

Why has the healthcare been so resistant to disruption? This focuses on “why disruption is not taken place in the delivery practices of hospitals and physician groups”

Where disruptive solutions are taking root – The part 2 “zeros in on how disruptive solutions have begun to improve health while lowering costs for significant populations”

The focus of the report is “on transforming the delivery system: the networks of physicians, clinics and hospitals that account for heart of the challenge.” The target audience are providers, payers, legislators, and innovators in healthcare.

Part 1 – Why has the healthcare been so resistant to disruption?

In this part the report highlights the following key points:

Flawed Incentive in the System “industry experts have lambasted the existing fee-for-service model in healthcare. The drawback has been correctly diagnosed: when doctors and hospitals are paid for office visits, procedures and tests, they will aim to generate more of those, whether they are absolutely needed.”

However, “Changing the payment model alone is insufficient to tackle affordability and population health improvement in a big way”

Understanding Competition in Healthcare – “competition in healthcare delivery leads to higher, not lower, costs. This is due to the fact that demand for healthcare services is actually driven by supply – meaning increases in supply lead to increases in demand. A community that adds more hospital beds will see hospitalization rates increased despite no change to the underlying health status of the population, as providers will seek to maximize the use of their assets.”

Lack of Demand from Benefits Managers for Disruption – “as an employee benefit, health insurance is a solution to the employer’s job to be done of attracting and retaining talent. Depending upon the industry and company specific strategy, benefits managers make decisions about how “rich” a package of benefits they should offer.” The report then expands on the point how we see the employers ranging from either passing the cost of insurance to their employees or buying a premium package to attract and retain talent – regardless of the cost consideration.

After explaining the fundamentals of why healthcare has been so resistant to disruption, the part two of the report focuses on disruptive healthcare solutions that are taking root.

Part 2 – Where disruptive solutions are taking root

The part two of the report focuses on examples of two potentially disruptive market solutions that are taking root – concept of care teams (provider innovation) and Medicare Advantage Insurance (payer marketplace innovation).

1. Care Teams that Include a Health Coach (Provider Innovation)

“The tradition of visiting your doctor for an annual checkup is fine, but there are potentially many missed opportunities in between – an area that we call “non-consumption.” If there were a lower-cost alternative to seeing a highly paid physician, there could be a way to serve consumers more often. The idea would be to evolve the primary healthcare model so it could address these “lower-tier” occasions, even if they don’t generate much revenue.”

“Primary care is often used as a feeder mechanism to higher cost specialist and large hospitals – rather than the main way to keep people healthy. The experience for the average American underwhelms and is often anything but convenient. To receive 7 to 10 minutes with a primary care physician, consumers deal with scheduling and other logistical challenges.”

Results for patients are less than inspiring. “Primary care doctors can refer patients to expensive specialist, and to facilities that offer expensive tests, but they often fall short of getting to know their patients’ daily health struggles in a wider basis”

“Thus, significant gap exists in the market for health advocate to play the role of problem solver for an individual.”

Example Startup: Iora’s Health – a startup focusing on the concept of a health coach as part of the “care team” for patient-centric care.

2. Medicare Advantage Insurance (Payer)

“Better provider models can only thrive if there is corresponding innovation taking place in the payer marketplace. The good news is that a large and growing insurance segment, Medicare advantage, is creating the context for innovation that reduces costs while improving health.”

“With its capitated payments, private insurers work with providers to share the risk of managing costs – by encouraging consumers to adopt new behaviors that reduce long-term health threats.”

“The Medicare advantage payment model serves as a powerful incentive to focus on innovating to manage costs and improve the health of members. Specifically, it drives both payers and providers to seek ways to minimize costly health episodes and ensure care is coordinated. Insurers are more likely to fund home visits and utilize physician extenders – such as nurse practitioners – to enable early interventions for at risk beneficiaries.”

Recommendations for the Future for Healthcare Stakeholders

The report concludes with the following recommendation for each stakeholder in healthcare;

For providers: The business model of extended care teams that include health coaches is driving the ability to deliver holistic primary care tailored for each individual—lowering costs and hospitalization rates. We recommend developing and leveraging new mechanisms for scaling this model.

For payers: Medicare Advantage has become a successful marketplace that provides the context for disruption. We recommend scaling its cost-saving pilots like the Diabetes Prevention Program that improve health by helping avert or manage chronic conditions.

For legislators: Instead of shifting rising costs among different stakeholders, focus on enabling models of care that lower costs by maximizing population health. Continue to support the shift to value-based payments and fostering a robust individual insurance market to motivate health plan innovation around consumer needs.

For innovators: Understand how urgent imperatives are changing the basis of competition—driving all stakeholders to develop new strategies, business models, and innovation capabilities.

]]>https://jawwad.me/summary-disruptive-innovation-revolutionize-healthcare/feed/03562Has salesforce disrupted the CRM market against SAP AG?https://jawwad.me/salesforce-disrupted-sap/
https://jawwad.me/salesforce-disrupted-sap/#respondSun, 05 Nov 2017 11:46:33 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3521This is the third blog post on the series to understand and evaluate technologies with disruptive potential in the software industry. In the first blog post, we summarized a pragmatic framework by Keller and Hüsig (2009) to help evaluate the potential of disruption between two software companies. In the second post, we applied that framework to the example of Google Docs (web application based) and Microsoft office (primarily desktop software based) – two formidable players in the office productivity tools’ market. The focus of this blog post will be applying that framework to yet another example to solidify our understanding by using N Katenecker 2013’s paper on disruptive potential of software a service. Below, I summarize the application of this framework to the CRM (customer relationship management) market. The two disruptive competitors are Salesforce and SAP AG. “Disruption is a process, not an event, and innovations can only be disruptive relative to something else” (Clayton Christensen). Therefore, we will evaluate the process of Salesforce potentially disrupting SAP AG with its cloud-based CRM software solutions. Overview of the CRM software market and its potentially disruptive technology Salesforce has been a pioneer of cloud-based CRM software. It’s infamous “no software” logo has […]

]]>This is the third blog post on the series to understand and evaluate technologies with disruptive potential in the software industry.

In the first blog post, we summarized a pragmatic framework by Keller and Hüsig (2009) to help evaluate the potential of disruption between two software companies. In the second post, we applied that framework to the example of Google Docs (web application based) and Microsoft office (primarily desktop software based) – two formidable players in the office productivity tools’ market.

The focus of this blog post will be applying that framework to yet another example to solidify our understanding by using N Katenecker 2013’s paper on disruptive potential of software a service. Below, I summarize the application of this framework to the CRM (customer relationship management) market. The two disruptive competitors are Salesforce and SAP AG.

“Disruption is a process, not an event, and innovations can only be disruptive relative to something else” (Clayton Christensen). Therefore, we will evaluate the process of Salesforce potentially disrupting SAP AG with its cloud-based CRM software solutions.

Overview of the CRM software market and its potentially disruptive technology

Salesforce has been a pioneer of cloud-based CRM software. It’s infamous “no software” logo has been core to its branding in the early years. Whereas, SAP, has been selling CRM software as an on premise solution. However, they have now also entered the cloud-based deployment of their CRM software.

Similar to Google Docs versus Microsoft Office, the technology in question here is the cloud-based delivery model of the CRM software. More specifically, understanding the process and extent of how strong is salesforce disruptive potential against SAP AG?

Conclusion of evaluation of Salesforce’s potential and progress so far to disrupt SAP AG

The research authors conducted the analysis using N Katenecker 2013‘s criteria sheets and trajectory maps. Here are the results:

From the criteria sheets and trajectory maps above, the follow points were noted by the authors:

Table 1 – Criteria Sheet SAP AG: SAP has implemented a “response strategy” in which it has also begun offering the cloud-based deployment of CRM software. However, it is unclear that the cloud-based SAP solution is targeting non-consumers. Overall, there response shows weak indication that they have prevented the impact of potential disruption by Salesforce.

Table 2 – Criteria Sheet Salesforce: Salesforce’s criteria sheet shows strong indication that they have made significant progress in all three phases (foothold, main, and failure of incumbent) to sustain the disruption potential of their cloud-based CRM solution.

Table 3 & 4 – Trajectory Maps: “We see that the results are in line with Christensen’s theory. The entrant’s price remains below the incumbent’s price and the number of features offered by the on-demand product reaches market demand while staying way behind the on-premises offer.” Source: N Katenecker 2013

Notes for the Future: “Right now, the chances of both companies surviving are high, and it is unlikely that SAP will disappear because of the disruptive innovation. The analysis process is about the potential and probability of disruption and not the final result which is disruptiveness” Source: N Katenecker 2013

This example, along with the series, has solidified my understanding on how to evaluate the disruptive potential of a software as a service web application to its competitor. I hope to keep a close eye on how these two companies pan out in the future to further build on this analysis.

]]>https://jawwad.me/salesforce-disrupted-sap/feed/03521Is Google Docs disrupting Microsoft Office?https://jawwad.me/google-docs-disrupting-microsoft-office/
https://jawwad.me/google-docs-disrupting-microsoft-office/#respondSat, 04 Nov 2017 11:46:21 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3518Previously, I summarized Keller and Husig’s (2009) framework for evaluating disruptive potential of a software. In this post, I will attempt to summarize how they applied that framework to their case study of Google vs Microsoft for their office applications. First, its important to remember that “Disruption is a process, not an event, and innovations can only be disruptive relative to something else” (Clayton Christensen). Therefore, we will evaluate the process of Google Docs potentially disrupting Microsoft Office. By the end, I hope to have a good understanding of how these two software products will pan out in the years to come. Understanding the Technology in Competition between Google and Microsoft It is important to understand the influence of the technology that is core to Google and Microsoft. Google’s core technology and expertise are in modern web applications – not only for its Google docs product but also for its other products. Google primarily uses the Internet as a platform (with exception to its chrome operating system). On the other hand, Microsoft’s technologies and expertise are in desktop software products and owns the most popular operating system first products – Microsoft Windows. However, for the innovation in question, both companies […]

First, its important to remember that “Disruption is a process, not an event, and innovations can only be disruptive relative to something else” (Clayton Christensen). Therefore, we will evaluate the process of Google Docs potentially disrupting Microsoft Office. By the end, I hope to have a good understanding of how these two software products will pan out in the years to come.

Evaluating the potential of Google Drive disrupting Microsoft Office

Understanding the Technology in Competition between Google and Microsoft

It is important to understand the influence of the technology that is core to Google and Microsoft. Google’s core technology and expertise are in modern web applications – not only for its Google docs product but also for its other products. Google primarily uses the Internet as a platform (with exception to its chrome operating system).

On the other hand, Microsoft’s technologies and expertise are in desktop software products and owns the most popular operating system first products – Microsoft Windows.

However, for the innovation in question, both companies are more directly competing on the potential of the web application innovation. Below, we evaluate how disruptive the web application innovation is for Google (startup) and Microsoft (incumbent).

Office productivity web applications of Microsoft and Google are satisfying market demand in an established market.

It is unclear if Google Docs is truly a low-end product. Microsoft also has low-end products for students and educational institutions.

Improvements in web applications could make it a bit easier for Google docs to compete with desktop-like performance in the years to come.

Google Docs is blocked by a main market entry (last phase of disruption to happen). This is because of Microsoft’s strong network effects (people prefer to use office wherever they go, locked in customers, familiar software etc.).

Google has a distinct business model and process built around its web services which can amount to a disruptive threat. However, Microsoft Office’s business model is just as robust – with partners, OEM manufacturers, multi-year long contracts etc. Keeping a close eye on how their business model pan out in the future will be of interest.

Google Doc’s is facing significant switching and coordination costs. People do not want to use google docs on one computer and Microsoft office on the other. For example, I write this blog post with Microsoft office on any computer.

Google docs and Microsoft Office will continue to compete in the coming years. What makes this competition interesting is that it’s a battle between two giants – instead of a startup and an incumbent. The disruptive potential for Google docs to overtake Microsoft Office are slim. I am keen to see how this will pan out in years to come.

]]>https://jawwad.me/google-docs-disrupting-microsoft-office/feed/03518Forecasting a disruptive innovation in the software industryhttps://jawwad.me/forecasting-disruptive-innovation-software/
https://jawwad.me/forecasting-disruptive-innovation-software/#respondWed, 01 Nov 2017 10:52:07 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3507Previously, I studied the works of Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation. In this post, I will be building on those notes with a specific focus of attempting to forecast the disruptive innovations in the software industry. Framework to forecasting the disruptive innovation in Software Keller and Hüsig (2009) noted that there is “a lack of definite frameworks for [forecasting] identification of disruptive innovations”. Thus, they developed a new framework to answer their thesis question of “whether web applications post a disruptive threat to incumbents or a disruptive growth opportunity for entrants“. What I found interesting is that they combined the following disruptive innovation forecasting approaches: The disruptive threats for incumbents – (Rafii and Kampas 2002) Industry change due to innovations – (Christensen et al. 2004) Disruptive potential of a technology – (Hüsig et al. 2005) As a result, they developed a framework consisting of two parts; Criteria sheet – a score-card like system for helping forecast the disruptive innovation for both the entrant and the incumbent Trajectory map – mapping the performance attributes of the entrant and the incumbent Criteria Sheet for forecasting potential of disruptive innovation Rafii and Kampas suggest that “since disruptive is generally a serial process, a […]

Criteria sheet – a score-card like system for helping forecast the disruptive innovation for both the entrant and the incumbent

Trajectory map – mapping the performance attributes of the entrant and the incumbent

Criteria Sheet for forecasting potential of disruptive innovation

Rafii and Kampas suggest that “since disruptive is generally a serial process, a very strong disabling factor can prohibit it early on”. Therefore, Keller and Hüsig, had three phases to the criteria sheet:

Failure of incumbents: incumbents fail, because they cannot successfully implement the innovations themselves

Criteria to measure disruptive potential of an innovation in software markets – Keller and Hüsig 2009.

Each of the criterion are checked for fulfilled, not fulfilled or unknown for both the entrant and the incumbent. Below, is an example provided by the authors for comparison between Google docs and Microsoft office:

Criteria to measure disruptive potential of an innovation in software markets for entrant – Keller and Hüsig 2009.Criteria to measure disruptive potential of an innovation in software markets for incumbent – Keller and Hüsig 2009.

Trajectory map for forecasting potential of disruptive innovation

Like Christensen’s graphs, the trajectory maps mapped the performance attributes. Keller and Hüsig were specifically looking for the following criteria:

The performance trajectory of the PDI intersects the (lower) demand trajectory

The performance trajectory of the established technology overshoots the (lower) demand trajectory

The performance trajectory of the PDI shows a steep curve (fast attack on incumbent)

The price trajectory of the PDI intersects the price trajectory of the established technology from above or stays always below

Here are two examples provided by the authors:

Trajectory map to measure disruptive potential of an innovation in software markets – Keller and Hüsig 2009.Trajectory map to measure disruptive potential of an innovation in software markets – Keller and Hüsig 2009.

]]>https://jawwad.me/forecasting-disruptive-innovation-software/feed/03507Understanding Disruptive Innovation in B2B SaaShttps://jawwad.me/disruptive-innovation-b2b-saas/
https://jawwad.me/disruptive-innovation-b2b-saas/#respondTue, 31 Oct 2017 12:15:44 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3502Previously, we chronologically reviewed the works of Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovation. In this post, I will be focusing on the “disruptive innovation” at play in business-to-business (B2B) software as a service (SaaS). There are now a handful of B2B SaaS companies that started at the “low-end of the market” (Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen) by focusing on small-to-medium businesses (SMB). Why is that the case? Does Christensen’s theories explain this? According to Tomasz, Partner at Redpoint, “I believe we’re seeing Clay Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma at play. In short, new startups leverage a distribution advantage to acquire SMB customers at scale. These distribution advantages take many forms: a simpler product (Box vs Sharepoint); mobile app store distribution (Expensify vs Concur); content marketing (Zendesk vs Oracle/Peoplesoft).” Source: Tomasz’s Blog – Innovator’s Delimma for SaaS Startups deliver on-demand vs on-premise solution (Salesforce vs Siebel) What he means by “distribution advantage” is that the Internet has enabled companies to market and acquire customers at scale. In other words, it has made acquiring small to medium businesses feasible for startups. For example, Zendesk could acquire small to medium businesses to content marketing and search engine marketing. According to Keller and Hüsig (2009), it is “not […]

There are now a handful of B2B SaaS companies that started at the “low-end of the market” (Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen) by focusing on small-to-medium businesses (SMB). Why is that the case? Does Christensen’s theories explain this?

According to Tomasz, Partner at Redpoint, “I believe we’re seeing Clay Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma at play. In short, new startups leverage a distribution advantage to acquire SMB customers at scale. These distribution advantages take many forms:

What he means by “distribution advantage” is that the Internet has enabled companies to market and acquire customers at scale. In other words, it has made acquiring small to medium businesses feasible for startups. For example, Zendesk could acquire small to medium businesses to content marketing and search engine marketing.

According to Keller and Hüsig (2009), it is “not feasible to make a complete survey of the disruptive potential for the entire software industry”. Thus, in the next blog post I will try to understand disruptive innovation in a specific segment of the web application – the customer-relationship-management (CRM) segment.

]]>https://jawwad.me/disruptive-innovation-b2b-saas/feed/035028 Scientific Concepts that Should be Better Knownhttps://jawwad.me/scientific-concepts-to-better-know/
https://jawwad.me/scientific-concepts-to-better-know/#respondSun, 29 Oct 2017 14:57:41 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3483Edge.org asks an annual question to the world’s “most complex and sophisticated minds” and reports on their insightful answers. In 2017, the annual question was “What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known?” Below, I share a selection of 8 responses (out of 206) that I found to be thought-provoking. 1. The Trolley Problem of Moral Philosophy Original response by Daniel Rockmore “The Trolley Problem” is another thought experiment, one that arose in moral philosophy. There are many versions, but here is one: A trolley is rolling down the tracks and reaches a branchpoint. To the left, one person is trapped on the tracks, and to the right, five people. You can throw a switch that diverts the trolley from the track with the five to the track with the one. Do you? The trolley can’t brake. What if we know more about the people on the tracks? Maybe the one is a child and the five are elderly? Maybe the one is a parent and the others are single? How do all these different scenarios change things? What matters? What are you valuing and why? Decision making always comes with a value system, a “utility function,” […]

1. The Trolley Problem of Moral Philosophy

“The Trolley Problem” is another thought experiment, one that arose in moral philosophy. There are many versions, but here is one: A trolley is rolling down the tracks and reaches a branchpoint. To the left, one person is trapped on the tracks, and to the right, five people. You can throw a switch that diverts the trolley from the track with the five to the track with the one. Do you? The trolley can’t brake. What if we know more about the people on the tracks? Maybe the one is a child and the five are elderly? Maybe the one is a parent and the others are single? How do all these different scenarios change things? What matters? What are you valuing and why?

Decision making always comes with a value system, a “utility function,” whereby we do one thing or another because one pathway reflects a greater value for the outcome than the other. Sometimes the value might seem obvious or trivial—this blender is recommended to you over that one for the probability that you will purchase it, based on various historical data; these pair of shoes, this song versus that song, etc.

But sometimes there is more at stake: this news or that news? More generally, this piece of information or that piece of information on a given subject? The values embedded in the program may start shaping your values and with that, society’s. Those are some pretty high stakes. The trolley problem shows us that the value systems that pervade programming can literally be a matter of life and death: Soon we will have driverless trolleys, driverless cars, and driverless trucks. Shit happens and choices need to be made: the teenager on the bike in the breakdown lane or the Fortune 500 CEO and his assistant in the stopped car ahead? What does your algorithm do and why?”

2. Case-Based Reasoning

“We do case-based reasoning all the time, without thinking that that is what we are doing. Case-based reasoning is essential to personal growth and learning. While we hear people proclaim that mathematics teaches one to think, or knowing logic will help one reason more carefully, humans do a different kind of reasoning quite naturally.

When we go to a restaurant, we think about what we ordered the last time we were there and whether we want to order the same thing again. When we go out on a date, we think about how that person reminds us of someone we went out with before, and we think about how that turned out. When we read a book we are reminded of other books with similar themes or similar situations and we tend to predict outcomes on that basis. When we hear someone tell us a story about their own lives, we are immediately reminded of something similar that has happened to us.”

3. Life History – How Organisms Change Over Time

“”Life history” is an important idea in evolution, especially human evolution. But it also gives us a richer way of thinking about our own lives. A human being isn’t just a collection of fixed traits, but part of an unfolding and dynamic story.

And that isn’t just the story of our own lives, caregiving and culture link us both to the grandparents who were there before we were born and the grandchildren who will carry on after we die.”

4. Motivated Reasoning – Information that Supports our Beliefs

“Why is it so hard to change people’s minds about truth even in the face of overwhelming evidence?

The failure of people to alter their beliefs in response to evidence is the result of a deep problem with our psychology. In a nutshell, psychologists have shown that the way we process information that conflicts with our existing beliefs is fundamentally different from the way we process information that is consistent with these beliefs, a phenomenon that has been labeled “motivated reasoning.”

Specifically, when we are exposed to information that meshes well with what we already believe (or with what we want to believe), we are quick to accept it as factual and true. We readily categorize this information as another piece of confirmatory evidence and move along. On the other hand, when we are exposed to information that contradicts a cherished belief, we tend to pay more attention, scrutinize the source of information, and process the information carefully and deeply. Unsurprisingly, this allows us to find flaws in the information, dismiss it, and maintain our (potentially erroneous) beliefs.

The psychologist Tom Gilovich captures this process elegantly, describing our minds as being guided by two different questions, depending on whether the information is consistent or inconsistent with our beliefs: “Can I believe this?” or “Must I believe this?””

5. Relative Deprivation – Comparing oneself to people “above”

“Relative deprivation is that idea that people feel disadvantaged when they lack the resources or opportunities of another person or social group.

An American living in a trailer park has an objective high standard of living compared with the rest of the world and the long tail of human history: they have creature comforts, substantial freedom of choice, and significant safety. Nevertheless, they feel deprived because they compare their lives with glamorous celebrities and super-rich businessmen. Relative deprivation tells us that social and financial status is more a feeling rather a fact, spelling trouble for traditional economics.”

6. Haldane’s Rule of the Right Size

“Toss a mouse from a building. It will land, shake itself off and scamper away. But if similarly dropped, “… a rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes.” So wrote J.B.S. Haldane in his 1926 essay “On Being the Right Size.”

The power of Haldane’s rule is that it applies to far more than just organisms. Hidden laws of scale stalk humankind everywhere we turn.

Like the engine on an underpowered aircraft, the cost can be catastrophic. Everything from airplanes to institutions has an intrinsic right size, which we ignore at our peril. The 2008 banking crisis taught us that companies and markets are not exempt from Haldane’s rule. But we got the lesson backwards: It wasn’t a case of “too big to fail,” but rather “too big to succeed.” One cannot help but fret that in their globe-spanning success, mega-companies are flirting with the unforgiving limits of right size.

Our political institutions also cannot escape the logic of Haldane’s rule. The Greeks concluded that their type of democracy worked best in a unit no larger than a small city.”

7. Verbal Overshadowing – Words distort memory

“Suppose that two people witness a crime: one describes in words what they saw, while the other does not. When tested later on their memories of the event, the person who verbally described the incident will be worse at later remembering or recognizing what actually happened. This is verbal overshadowing. Putting an experience into words can result in failures of memory about that experience, whether it be the memory of a person’s face, the color of an object, or the speed that a car was going.

Anything that interferes with memory interferes, effectively, with the truth.

The facts of linguistic diversity suggest a striking implication of verbal overshadowing: that not just different words, but different languages, are distinct filters for reality.”

8. Conceptual Combination – Brain’s Power of Accumulation

“Right now, as your eyes glide across this text, you are effortlessly understanding letters and words. How does your brain accomplish this remarkable feat, converting blobs of ink (or patterns of tiny pixels) into full-fledged ideas? Your brain uses concepts that you’ve accumulated throughout your lifetime.

Each letter of the alphabet, each word, and each sequence of words that stands for an idea is represented in your brain by concepts. Even more remarkably, you can often comprehend things you’ve never seen before, like a brand new word in the middle of a sentence. You can see an unfamiliar breed of dog and still instantly know it’s a dog. How does your brain achieve these everyday marvels? The answer is: concepts in combination.”

]]>https://jawwad.me/scientific-concepts-to-better-know/feed/03483Understanding the criticism of Christensen’s theorieshttps://jawwad.me/criticism-of-christensen-theories/
https://jawwad.me/criticism-of-christensen-theories/#respondTue, 24 Oct 2017 11:08:02 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3467In Understanding the complete works of Christensen on Innovation, I pieced together Clayton’s theories to be understood holistically – from the beginning to now. In this post, I review the criticism against his theories with the goal of further strengthening the understanding and the use of critical thinking when working with his theories. As with most popular works, Christensen’s theories have been a target of criticism. In the earlier post, I briefly touched on some book-specific research to supplement and build on his work. Now, let’s review two of the most notable criticisms; 1. New Yorker – The Disruption Machine (2014) “The New Yorker article — “The Disruption Machine: What the gospel of innovation gets wrong” — was written by another Harvard faculty member, Jill Lepore, a historian and staff writer at the New Yorker. In a breezy and distinctly nonacademic writing style, Lepore lambasted Christensen’s theory and some of his findings in “Innovator’s Dilemma,” most notably pointing out that a disk-drive firm that Christensen portrayed as a faltering victim of disruptive innovation actually survived and thrived after heated competition with upstart rivals. She also questioned Christensen’s expansive application of the theory to fields beyond for-profit companies, such as higher education (as […]

]]>In Understanding the complete works of Christensen on Innovation, I pieced together Clayton’s theories to be understood holistically – from the beginning to now. In this post, I review the criticism against his theories with the goal of further strengthening the understanding and the use of critical thinking when working with his theories.

As with most popular works, Christensen’s theories have been a target of criticism. In the earlier post, I briefly touched on some book-specific research to supplement and build on his work. Now, let’s review two of the most notable criticisms;

Understanding Criticism of Clayton Christensen’s Theories

1. New Yorker – The Disruption Machine (2014)

“The New Yorker article — “The Disruption Machine: What the gospel of innovation gets wrong” — was written by another Harvard faculty member, Jill Lepore, a historian and staff writer at the New Yorker. In a breezy and distinctly nonacademic writing style, Lepore lambasted Christensen’s theory and some of his findings in “Innovator’s Dilemma,” most notably pointing out that a disk-drive firm that Christensen portrayed as a faltering victim of disruptive innovation actually survived and thrived after heated competition with upstart rivals.

Today, Lepore only expresses regret that closer academic scrutiny of Christensen’s theory hadn’t been conducted before King and Baatartogtokh’s recent article.

“That evaluation has been a long time in coming,” she said. “For years, people who’ve pointed out the theory’s flaws, inconsistencies, and inadequacies have been shouted down or ignored, as if belief in disruption were a matter of faith and to question it on evidentiary grounds amounted to heresy.”” [Directly quoted from: ‘Disruptive innovation’ theory comes under scrutiny]

King and Baatartogtokh (How Useful is the Theory of Disruptive Innovation?) aimed to test the Disruption Theory’s “essential validity and generalizability”. To do that, they conducted interviews with each of the 77 companies discussed in The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution. What they concluded is that many of those 77 companies did not fit four of theory’s key conditions and predictions.

Thus, King and Baartartogtokh, concluded with the recommendation that “stories about disruptive innovation can provide warnings of what may happen, but they are no substitute for critical thinking. High-level theories can give managers encouragement, but they are no replacement for careful analysis and difficult choices.”

Clayton Christensen responded to King and Baartartogtokh essentially shooting down the their criticism. First, he emphasized that the critics had done only 75 interviews where him and his team had conducted extensive company and industry-wide interviews to articulate their research. His second concern was that “the article doesn’t demonstrate a thorough understanding of how disruption plays out in different industries. And his last concern was that “the article claims to test the usefulness of theory of disruption, but it doesn’t actually do that. Instead the article provides a flawed test of a different question: do the examples cited in “The Innovator’s Solution” fit the criteria of disruptive innovation”

How Christensen’s has Responded to the Critiques

Christensen has firmly disagreed with most of his critics in the “usefulness” of his theories. He has emphasized that “At the end of the day, the test of a theory is its usefulness, and many company executives have found disruption a powerful lens to help them respond to shifts in their industries.” [Source: ‘Disruptive innovation’ theory comes under scrutiny]

]]>https://jawwad.me/criticism-of-christensen-theories/feed/03467Understanding the complete works of Christensen on Innovationhttps://jawwad.me/understanding-clayton-christensen-disruption/
https://jawwad.me/understanding-clayton-christensen-disruption/#respondThu, 19 Oct 2017 10:24:30 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3440Clayton Christensen has been the undisputed expert on Disruptive Innovation. In this post, I will breakdown his complete works on disruption – a theory of competitive response to an innovation. His theories have been relevant to me in my interests of entrepreneurship, product management, and trying to articulate world’s problems. The content of this summary is derived from Christensen’s books of The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), The Innovator’s Solution (2003), Seeing What’s Next (2004), and Competing Against Luck (2016). Lastly, I will supplement the theories in these books with external research criticizing or supplementing his work. Why Understand Christensen’s Theories on Innovation Understanding his theories holistically – from inception to now – will allow a leader (product manager or an executive) to best apply these theories to understand his or her business landscape. Furthermore, and most importantly, it will allow the leader to be aware of the anomalies, shortcomings, areas of further research about his proposed theories. Being armed with his theories has guided and continue to guide me in my projects (understanding disruptions in retail, launching SharpScholar startup etc) and I hope it can do the same for you. Table of Contents Understanding The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997) Further Research and Shortcomings […]

Why Understand Christensen’s Theories on Innovation

Understanding his theories holistically – from inception to now – will allow a leader (product manager or an executive) to best apply these theories to understand his or her business landscape. Furthermore, and most importantly, it will allow the leader to be aware of the anomalies, shortcomings, areas of further research about his proposed theories.

Understanding The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997)

The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), the original Christensen’s work, began with seeking an answer to: Why do well-managed firms with commanding market leadership position, consistently fail to innovate products and result in their own downfall?

Christensen’s answer was that it is because the incumbents do everything “right” that cause them to fail. Specifically, the marketing departments of incumbent companies don’t take risks with new innovative products whose potential is unknown.

“The basic lessons, according to Christensen, are that:

technical improvements on the supply side tend to outpace technical needs on the demand side, leading to all products moving consistently upmarket, and

that existing markets are always significantly larger than new markets, and thus it doesn’t make sense for an established firm to expend disproportionate resources on not-yet-existing markets.” [See Figure 1 below for visualization] Source: Innovation Group – UCSB

“What should we conclude from this? Christensen notes that disruptive innovation always favors entrants. We should not expect well entrenched players to innovate as radically or creatively as new players. If one is an established player, this is pretty bad news. Christenson’s advice is to spin off separate divisions or units to concentrate on disruptive innovation; only groups small enough to pursue uncertain and currently negligible markets will have a good chance at creating disruptive change.” Source: Innovation Group – UCSB

Further Research and Shortcomings for The Innovator’s Dilemma

Despite being a widely popular theory, there were (and still are) some significant shortcomings and room for further research. More specifically;

Over Simplification: Research finds agreement with Christensen’s core theories but also emphasizes room for further research as it seems oversimplified. In his later works, Christensen, has built upon his “simple” theory of innovation to tease out the nuisances.

Generalization of Incumbent’s Ability: Christensen has been criticized for over-generalization of Incumbent’s ability to reorganize resources and processes for a disruptive or low-end innovation. Other research found that “ability to adapt” and “technologically fit alert” factors of an incumbent firm might be of greater importance than spinning out a separate organization. (Meeus & Oerlemans, 2000)

Further Research for Case Studies: Scope of industries and case studies was quite limited to disk drives and diggers and Meeus & Oerlemans Research with Dutch Industrial. Thus, a call for further research and case studies was widely requested by the community.

The Innovator’s Solution (2003)

The Innovator’s Solution (2003), as the name suggests, had the goal of arming the leaders with how “The Innovator’s Dilemma (1993)” can be solved. This book dug deeper into the “how” as compared to the previous book – which only gave high-level details of spinning out a separate organization for disruptive innovations.

Furthermore, Christensen also updated the model of disruptive innovation. The original model for disruptive innovation (Source: Innovator’s Delimma 1993) had two axes upon which the markets were sustained or disrupted (See Figure 1). In this book he added a third dimension that represented non-consuming contexts – “New-Market Disruption” as shown in Figure 2 below;

The “New-Market Disruption” created performance measures (affordability, speed, or business model) that enable the non-consumers to do something that was previously prohibited. As compared to low-end market disruption, new market innovations were different because they targeted non-consumers as opposed to over-served consumers.

This introduces a triple threat for leaders in incumbent firms. First, they risk someone producing a cheaper or simpler widget for low-end customers. Second, they face the threat of consumers shifting from the current value network (or performance criteria) to new-market as its performance improved along a given trajectory. Lastly, the same leaders are expected to product profitable growth at a level that investors demand. In reality, “roughly one in ten businesses are capable of this type of growth” (Christensen, The Innovator’s Solution, 2003, P1). Christensen suggests that innovation offers promising growth for companies for whom sustaining growth offers little potential for growth.

Further Research and Shortcomings for The Innovator’s Solution

By the time the Innovator’s Solution was released, participants of the innovation community (i-e Procter and Gamble) had tested and applied the theories put forward by Clayton Christensen. Therefore, the following supplements were put forward by external research;

Guidance of Running Separate Organization – Rigby (2007) research and report agreed with the concept of “Disruptive Growth Engine” (Christensen, The Innovators Solution, 2003). To supplement, it provided additional guidance on running a separate innovation organization in companies. Particularly, CEO’s are advised to expect profits early from their innovation engines. It further highlights the need to research further into guidance for the CEO for challenges of keeping the separate organization running.

Organization’s Culture and Appetite for Innovation – Another research (Drew, Sarasvathy, Read, Wiltbank, Ohlosson, 2011) built on the “Disruptive Growth Engine” by exploring the need for entrepreneurial spark or company’s culture to innovate that will fuel the processes and systems.

Entrepreneurial Talent Required – Which talent is best suited to implement or lead the innovation organization? Another research (Fontela, Guzmán, Pérez, & Santos, 2006) emphasized and expand upon the entrepreneurial skill that can be developed in executives.

Fatality of Disruptive Innovation – A research has focused on downplaying the threat of disruption, as suggested by Christensen, by emphasizing that many “disrupted” products co-exist happily with the disruptor. (Sood & Tellis, 2011)

Launchpad for Disruptive Innovation – The above research has also highlighted that disruptive innovation is more likely to come from an incumbent organization than a startup. (Sood & Tellis, 2011)

Seeing What’s Next (2004)

The feedback on Christensen’s work to-date suggested that leaders were beginning to understand the world through the lens of low-end and new market innovations. However, they were not able to understand the market or apply it in a “repeatable and methodological fashion” (Christensen, Anthony, & Roth, Seeing What’s Next, 2004, P XXXI).

Further Research and Shortcomings for Seeing What’s Next

There is little criticism or response from the community for Seeing What’s Next. This is because Christensen does not explore any of the core-theories on Innovation in this book – which have been the focus for criticism in his previous books. Despite that, some notable research include;

Structure for Implementing – Christensen’s three-stage model needed to be supplemented with a structure to implement directly in an organization. For example, who in the organization would use this model and how do they get appropriate support and insight across the business. (Smith and Saritas, 2011)

Other Supplements – Furthermore, company’s culture is just as likely to contribute to successful innovation. (Sood & Tellis, 2011)

Competing Against Luck (2016)

Competing against Luck has been a much-needed supplement to Disruption theory. To quote from the book, “Disruption, a theory of competitive response to an innovation, provides valuable insights to managers seeking to navigate threats and opportunities. But it leaves unanswered the critical of question of how a company should innovate to consistently grow. It does not provide guidance on specifically where to look for new opportunities, or specifically what products and services you should create that customers will want to buy”

“This book introduces the Theory of Jobs to be Done to answer these questions and provide clear guidance for companies looking to grow through innovation. At its heart, Jobs Theory explains why customers pull certain products and services into their lives: they do this to resolve highly important, unsatisfied jobs that arise. And this, in turn, explains why some innovations are successful and others are not” (Christensen, Competing Against Luck (2016), Page 17-18)

Next Steps for Understanding Christensen’s Theories

The books noted above provide a cohesive model for managers to approach innovation. The Innovator’s Dilemma book explores and identifies the dilemma. The Innovator’s Solution book prescribes a solution to that dilemma and updates the framework. Seeing What is Next book gives a methodological approach to applying the framework from within a company. Lastly, Competing Against Luck (2016) explores innovation from a customer’s perspective to answer causes growth.

Christensen’s refinement and application of his Innovation theories are being continued at Christensen Institute – a non-profit aimed at “changing the world through disruptive innovation. Their research is something I try to follow and study to understand the theory being applied and testing against real-world problems. I am excited to study the impact of his theories in companies to-date and hope that more problem-solvers (product managers and leaders) can equip themselves with the understanding of his theories.

]]>https://jawwad.me/understanding-clayton-christensen-disruption/feed/03440Understanding Ikea’s acquisition of TaskRabbithttps://jawwad.me/acquisition-taskrabbit-ikea/
https://jawwad.me/acquisition-taskrabbit-ikea/#respondFri, 29 Sep 2017 10:27:31 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3379The online marketplace for odd jobs, TaskRabbit, has been acquired by Ikea. To truly understand the significance of this acquisition, its important to understand both sides; Ikea’s Motivations – Why would it want to acquire a gig marketplace? TaskRabbit’s Motivations – Why would a startup’s founder and investors accept a relatively early exit (only after Series C)? Let me try to expand on each of the above. Please do share your thoughts and feedback. IKEA’s Motivation to Acquire TaskRabbit Ikea is and has been a very successful furniture retailer in almost every measure – sales growth, product innovation, catalogue marketing, ikea restaurant, and their own innovation lab. To continue this success, they want to focus on; Targeting non-consumers of Ikea Products – This includes people who either would have bought from an ikea’s competitor or would not have made the purchase at all. Imagine an amazon-prime like experience of purchasing furniture with delivery and assembly included. For it to continue its aggressive growth, this only seems like the logical next step. (Disclaimer: I am amazon-prime customer). Changing the Positioning of their Products – Ikea has enjoyed the “DIY” (do-it-yourself) positioning of their products. However, for people who do not want to […]

Targeting non-consumers of Ikea Products – This includes people who either would have bought from an ikea’s competitor or would not have made the purchase at all. Imagine an amazon-prime like experience of purchasing furniture with delivery and assembly included. For it to continue its aggressive growth, this only seems like the logical next step. (Disclaimer: I am amazon-prime customer).

Changing the Positioning of their Products – Ikea has enjoyed the “DIY” (do-it-yourself) positioning of their products. However, for people who do not want to “DIY”, Ikea wants to position an up-sell (of assembly service).

Cheap Labour for Assembly Service – Ikea has been testing assembly services in the US. The Ikea delivery starts at $59 and assembly starts at $89. With Taskrabbit, they can significantly reduce the assembly fee (remember that shipping also drops after a certain purchase amount).

Outsourcing of Assembly Service – Ikea, like Apple, is known to outsource parts of their business that are not their core competence. For example, it recently outsourced online fulfillment to amazon. With TaskRabbit, it can let them focus on furniture assembly while Ikea matains its focus on its core.

Preparing for the Online Furniture Buying World – Ikea has had its augmented reality app, Ikea Place, to better enable online/mobile purchases. With furniture assembly (and possibly maintenance), it is preparing itself to better equip itself for the world of online furniture purchases. Taskrabbit could help with things like customer inquiries, customer service (deliver a missing part), or to simply delight a customer (customer marketing).

TaskRabbit’s Motivation to seek an Acquisition

It is important to understand that the gig economy has had a handful of failures that could provide insights into TaskRabbit’s motivation to seek an acquisition.

Sustaining the Supply and Demand of the Marketplace – From my exposure to an early stage TaskRabbit-like startup, I know its difficult to keep up a marketplace (demand and supply) of gig workers. This new-yorker article sheds some light on how its like to be on either sides.

Ability to Focus on Niche Target Services – My assumption is that now TaskRabbit can focus on a more standardize service to Ikea’s clients. A customer will be much happier if they receive a service that is provided by a trusted brand of Ikea.

Ability to Provide their Workforce with More Security – Before, as a gig worker you had little control over your income. Now, image a gig worker for ikea that owns certain geographical areas and fulfills all furniture assembly there. I think this would be a win-win for both the supply and demand side of TaskRabbit. If things go well, maybe they will even have some benefits or guaranteed income vs no benefits or insurance.

Did I miss an insight that you have about ikea and taskrabbit? Please do share it in the comments below.

]]>https://jawwad.me/acquisition-taskrabbit-ikea/feed/03379Understanding the Bankruptcy of Toys ‘R’ Us (It was not Amazon)https://jawwad.me/bankruptcy-of-toys-r-us/
https://jawwad.me/bankruptcy-of-toys-r-us/#respondWed, 27 Sep 2017 11:05:34 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3372The news of Toys ‘R’ Us’s bankruptcy is widely received by the consumers (parents and kids) and the retail industry. However, some other retail bankruptcies, this was not “another retailer killed by Amazon” scenario. In fact, what drove them to their grave was: Their financing strategy of private equity (mostly debt) and How their financial strategy influenced their priorities and focus for innovation Let me expand on what I mean by their financing strategy and how that influenced the company. Toys ‘R’ Us’s Financing Strategy of Private Equity Back in 2005 a consortium conducted a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout of the company of which 1.3 billion was their own capital and the remaining $5.3 billion was debt. This resulted in the retailer having to pay $ 473 million annually in interest – a whopping amount that they have struggled to pay in the last few months. These rumours spread to toy vendors and some of them refused to deliver holiday season’s inventory without up-front payments which only further damaged Toys ‘R’ Us’s working capital needs, forcing it further into bankruptcy. Lastly, the incentives of a private equity investors (vs the founder) are to buy a business and rapidly grow it’s […]

]]>The news of Toys ‘R’ Us’s bankruptcy is widely received by the consumers (parents and kids) and the retail industry. However, some other retail bankruptcies, this was not “another retailer killed by Amazon” scenario. In fact, what drove them to their grave was:

How their financial strategy influenced their priorities and focus for innovation

Let me expand on what I mean by their financing strategy and how that influenced the company.

Toys ‘R’ Us’s Financing Strategy of Private Equity

Back in 2005 a consortium conducted a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout of the company of which 1.3 billion was their own capital and the remaining $5.3 billion was debt. This resulted in the retailer having to pay $ 473 million annually in interest – a whopping amount that they have struggled to pay in the last few months. These rumours spread to toy vendors and some of them refused to deliver holiday season’s inventory without up-front payments which only further damaged Toys ‘R’ Us’s working capital needs, forcing it further into bankruptcy.

Toys ‘R’ Us’s Focus and Priorities for Innovation

To recall, Toys ‘R’ Us aims to be the destination for toys and controlled access to distribution (the customers/consumers). Thus, their focus became to demand lower prices, charging for premium shelf space, exclusivity, and other in-store innovations such as lenient payment terms.

All those innovations are close to the business of Toys ‘R’ Us, instore retailer. However, I can only assume that the retailer did not take some aggressive or risky innovation projects within their R&D department. Or even if they did, the focus and energy of the higher-ups were sucked by keeping the company afloat.

Some more lessons learned here are;

– There is such a thing as bad growth. I think its time most retailers realize that and plan accordingly. Read https://hbr.org/2017/01/curing-the-addiction-to-growth

– There is such a thing as bad money. That is, always be careful about revenue before profits or investors that push you to go down that route. (Clayton Christensen, Innovator’s Solution)

I am looking forward to seeing how the company re-establishes itself after its restructuring.

Note: This blog post is filled under “Checkout 51” – one of my projects to better understand the retail space.

]]>https://jawwad.me/bankruptcy-of-toys-r-us/feed/03372Understanding the History of Loyalty Card Programshttps://jawwad.me/understanding-history-loyalty-card-programs/
https://jawwad.me/understanding-history-loyalty-card-programs/#respondFri, 25 Aug 2017 10:30:06 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3312Having understood the objectives of a loyalty card program and evaluating its effectiveness, I wanted to study the history of it. After all, I find history to be a collection of unbiased facts that give a unique insight into the past. In the case of the history of loyalty card programs, I found some interesting facts that are worth contemplating about; It began in the Early 1700s and retailers quickly caught on – Here I would argue the “fear of missing out” and parity with competition played a bigger role in the popularity of the loyalty card programs rather than the effectiveness of it. Over time consumers became commoditized – when every retailer was offering a loyalty card, it was no longer a unique offering. Therefore, it became a commodity that customers utilized for their own advantage – leading to the overall decrease in the effectiveness of the loyalty card programs. For anyone wanting to understand the history of loyalty card programs I encouraged them to read this article as well as Tesco’s CEO’s analysis of the loyalty card space.

]]>Having understood the objectives of a loyalty card program and evaluating its effectiveness, I wanted to study the history of it. After all, I find history to be a collection of unbiased facts that give a unique insight into the past.

In the case of the history of loyalty card programs, I found some interesting facts that are worth contemplating about;

Over time consumers became commoditized – when every retailer was offering a loyalty card, it was no longer a unique offering. Therefore, it became a commodity that customers utilized for their own advantage – leading to the overall decrease in the effectiveness of the loyalty card programs.

]]>https://jawwad.me/understanding-history-loyalty-card-programs/feed/03312Key learnings about effectiveness of loyalty programs for grocery retailershttps://jawwad.me/key-learnings-effectiveness-loyalty-programs-grocery-retailers/
https://jawwad.me/key-learnings-effectiveness-loyalty-programs-grocery-retailers/#respondFri, 25 Aug 2017 10:12:09 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3306Loyalty card programs offered by grocery retailers have intrigued me for quite some time. First, in my capacity as a cashier at Zellers (discount department retailer) where I earned a bonus for to signing-up customers for our rewards program – including the credit card. Secondly, in my teenage years where I used the SPC card wherever I could. Now, as a product manager for Checkout 51 and with the luxury of those past experiences, I’ve been working closely in the domain of loyalty programs for grocery retailers. In this post, I hope to distill the key learnings in hopes of sharing my reflections with others who are also trying to solve problems within the retail space. In later posts, I hope to expand upon some of these points in more detail with links to supporting sources. Key findings about Loyalty Programs Expensive to Setup without evidence of ROI: Loyalty programs of any kind are expensive to set up and maintain for the retailer. Furthermore, there is little or no research evidence that any of these changes in behaviour justify the program costs. (Bowman and Lele-Pingle 1997; Uncles and Laurent 1997) Little Impact of Loyalty Programs on Growth: loyalty programs seem to […]

]]>Loyalty card programs offered by grocery retailers have intrigued me for quite some time. First, in my capacity as a cashier at Zellers (discount department retailer) where I earned a bonus for to signing-up customers for our rewards program – including the credit card. Secondly, in my teenage years where I used the SPC card wherever I could. Now, as a product manager for Checkout 51 and with the luxury of those past experiences, I’ve been working closely in the domain of loyalty programs for grocery retailers.

In this post, I hope to distill the key learnings in hopes of sharing my reflections with others who are also trying to solve problems within the retail space. In later posts, I hope to expand upon some of these points in more detail with links to supporting sources.

Key findings about Loyalty Programs

Expensive to Setup without evidence of ROI: Loyalty programs of any kind are expensive to set up and maintain for the retailer. Furthermore, there is little or no research evidence that any of these changes in behaviour justify the program costs. (Bowman and Lele-Pingle 1997; Uncles and Laurent 1997)

Little Impact of Loyalty Programs on Growth: loyalty programs seem to produce only very slightly loyal behaviour and do practically little to drive bottom-line growth. This is in part because of the large costs needed to set up and run the program and its on tangible bottom-line and intangible opportunity costs.

Loyalty Programs Target the Wrong Set of Customers: Loyalty program’s marketing efforts end up acquiring and resonating towards loyal and heavy consumers of a brand – a retailer or a CPG. Less frequent or “at risk off churning” consumers don’t see their loyalty program and if they do the can’t justify the point in joining it.

Efforts to Personalize of Loyalty Programs are Poor or Non-Existing: Grocery retailers hypothesize that the loyalty programs would provide vast amounts of data that would allow a better insight into customer behaviour, cost, ability to target and personalize loyalty program offerings. In practice, however, this is more trivial and expensive to analyse and use all this information for targeting purposes. Even when accomplished, it is debatable that personalization to that extent can return the ROI spent to get to it.

Loyalty Programs Miss the Why and Non-Consumers: Loyalty programs rarely do a good job in collecting complete customer data of decision making or customer experience. Furthermore, these programs tend to ignore the non-consumers and “why” for them as well.

Loyalty Programs Operate in an Incomplete World: Loyalty programs do not collect or normalize their data to the complete portfolio of brands or products bought. That is, they do not have much to say about the total market, lost potential, competitor marketing activity, or total category expenditure. This results in a self-fulfilling world for both the loyalty program operator and the brand as they could conclude any campaign a success in isolation the complete world.

Unfortunately, many of the above findings are in directly conflict with the objective and purpose of a loyalty program. On the bright side, this should serve as an inspiration for myself and others working in this area to solve problems for the retailers, CPGs, and consumers.

]]>https://jawwad.me/key-learnings-effectiveness-loyalty-programs-grocery-retailers/feed/03306Objective and Purpose of Loyalty Card Programshttps://jawwad.me/objective-purpose-loyalty-card-programs/
https://jawwad.me/objective-purpose-loyalty-card-programs/#commentsFri, 25 Aug 2017 10:09:37 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3308Loyalty programs are deliberate marketing efforts that influence customers’ buying behaviour. In short, these programs aim to influence users to buy more from products listed under the loyalty program – in addition to or instead of non-loyalty program products. These programs go by the names of: rewards program, savings club, points program, gold membership etc. However, programs like Costco’s membership and Amazon prime do not fall under the same category. They are unique “privilege loyalty programs” and I hope to cover these in a separate post. With that clarified, lets get into the objectives of a loyalty card program; Primary objectives of Loyalty Card Program The primary objectives of the loyalty programs include: influence and increase single brand loyalty decreased consumers price sensitivity by introducing other variables of points, cashback, coupons etc. introduce consumer resistance to competing offers or products increase the desire for consumer to consider alternative brands attract and retain a larger pool of customers The secondary objective is more defensive: motivated by fears of competitive parity to maintain the current customer base by building a closer bond de-risk the business by creating a database of customers The peripheral objectives include: supplementing trade relations with the brands getting […]

]]>Loyalty programs are deliberate marketing efforts that influence customers’ buying behaviour. In short, these programs aim to influence users to buy more from products listed under the loyalty program – in addition to or instead of non-loyalty program products.

]]>https://jawwad.me/objective-purpose-loyalty-card-programs/feed/13308Overview of the Pragmatic Marketing Frameworkhttps://jawwad.me/overview-pragmatic-marketing-framework/
https://jawwad.me/overview-pragmatic-marketing-framework/#respondSun, 02 Jul 2017 01:21:54 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3292Having had built and sold software products, I recently decided re-visit some structured material to reflect upon my experience – and while reflecting, write something as a guide to re-visit for next time. By doing so, I hope to be following the “forever learning” theme of this blog – where I reflect during and after the experience (e.g experiments) to grow instead of just going through life. To have a holistic approach in this blueprint for building software products, I will be using the pragmatic marketing framework as an overview and then I would supplement sections of this framework with specialized books that provide a deep-dive of a particular part of of the pragmatic framework. Why the Pragmatic Marketing Framework? First, I have no paid affiliation with Pragmatic Marketing – or have ever purchased their products. I have truly studied their material from what is available for free on the web and from my friends who have taken their courses. Lastly, the reason I choose this framework is simply because it was the best overview or blueprint that I could find that can serve as a guide to building software products. Thus, I decided to use the framework and supplement it with […]

]]>Having had built and sold software products, I recently decided re-visit some structured material to reflect upon my experience – and while reflecting, write something as a guide to re-visit for next time. By doing so, I hope to be following the “forever learning” theme of this blog – where I reflect during and after the experience (e.g experiments) to grow instead of just going through life.

To have a holistic approach in this blueprint for building software products, I will be using the pragmatic marketing framework as an overview and then I would supplement sections of this framework with specialized books that provide a deep-dive of a particular part of of the pragmatic framework.

Why the Pragmatic Marketing Framework?

First, I have no paid affiliation with Pragmatic Marketing – or have ever purchased their products. I have truly studied their material from what is available for free on the web and from my friends who have taken their courses.

Lastly, the reason I choose this framework is simply because it was the best overview or blueprint that I could find that can serve as a guide to building software products. Thus, I decided to use the framework and supplement it with my practical projects and specialized books.

Let’s start by appreciating the official definition of the pragmatic marketing framework,

By its nature of being a blueprint, it has some weaknesses when it comes to deep-diving into one of its parts – just like how a map can’t tell you the local tips and tricks to navigate the area.

Shortcomings of the Pragmatic Marketing Framework

From my experience, the framework falls short when it comes to deep diving in a certain part of building the product. For example, “Market Problems” is a behemoth on its own that requires focused and dedication from the entrepreneur to get this right. However, the framework itself lacks the content or specialized authors that only focus in this domain.

To solve this, I have combined the pragmatic marketing framework with specialized resources of books that I have used to dig further into that topic. Furthermore, there are some topics that even I have yet not explored – such as “Specialty Calls” for which I hope to add to it later point in time.

How to work with Pragmatic Marketing Framework

Before I explain the framework, I would like to point out some fundamental principles that must be followed when using this framework to build products;

Having the intuition to know where to focus in this framework is more important than the knowledge of all the working parts. For example, in early stage of building your product, know that you must spend significant time in “Market” and “Focus” before you crystalize what your “Business” will be about.

Finally, building products is a high-risk venture with failure rates of greater than 85%, thus, always triple check your plan and assumptions against experience entrepreneurs as it will allow you to be a little more fail-proof.

With those as our guiding principles, lets deep dive into the framework itself.

2. Distribution Strategy

3. Product Portfolio

Integrate products into a coherent portfolio of products focused on the market. Manage the “portfolio” like a product (business plan, positioning, buying process, market requirements and marketing plan)

Note: I have yet to practise and experience this skill, thus, I will not post any recommended resources yet.

4. Product Roadmap

Illustrate a vision and key phases of your deliverables for the product. The roadmap is a plan not a commitment.

Note: I am currently practising this skill at Checkout 51 and will post my learnings here shortly.

In conclusion, I hope to re-visit this page and improve on my learnings of each building block of building great products. If you happen to have insights to add to my learnings, please comment below.

]]>https://jawwad.me/overview-pragmatic-marketing-framework/feed/03292Ultimate Guide for Internal Product Managementhttps://jawwad.me/guide-internal-product-management/
https://jawwad.me/guide-internal-product-management/#commentsFri, 17 Feb 2017 11:45:32 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3148Unfortunately, the field of product management does not focus enough on the product management of internal products. These internal products (aka admin portal) are used by almost all software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies so support their customer-facing (external) products. For example, you are likely familiar with buying products on amazon.com or ebay.com – their external customer-facing product. However, when you have an issue with your order and contact customer-service, they interact with an internal tool (aka admin portal) to assist you. The focus of this guide is to provide a guide for those internal products for current and aspiring internal product managers. What is internal product management? The outcome of internal product management is you solve problems of users internal to your organization (partners, employees, customer service etc) OR enables your organization to satisfy the needs of your customers. – KPB Media What is the different between internal and external product management? There are fundamental differences between internal and external product management. Internal product management focuses on: Customer is the “Internal User” – These are usually the internal users (employees, customer service etc). Thus, they become the persona/user to focus on delivering value to. For example, the customer service might need a tool […]

]]>Unfortunately, the field of product management does not focus enough on the product management of internal products. These internal products (aka admin portal) are used by almost all software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies so support their customer-facing (external) products.

For example, you are likely familiar with buying products on amazon.com or ebay.com – their external customer-facing product. However, when you have an issue with your order and contact customer-service, they interact with an internal tool (aka admin portal) to assist you.

The focus of this guide is to provide a guide for those internal products for current and aspiring internal product managers.

Ultimate Guide for Internal Product Management

What is internal product management?

The outcome of internal product management is you solve problems of users internal to your organization (partners, employees, customer service etc) OR enables your organization to satisfy the needs of your customers. – KPB Media

What is the different between internal and external product management?

There are fundamental differences between internal and external product management.

Internal product management focuses on:

Customer is the “Internal User” – These are usually the internal users (employees, customer service etc). Thus, they become the persona/user to focus on delivering value to. For example, the customer service might need a tool to quickly process returns for the customer.

Cost and Time Reduction – To goal of the product is make the job/task of these internal users easy by reducing the time (and cost) it takes to finish that task.

Obstacles and Challenges for Internal Product Managers

Internal product managers come up against unique obstacles when demonstrating value internally and for their career growth. Specifically;

Demonstrating business Value – Since internal product managers do not generate new revenue, they are sometimes have a harder time demonstrating value. This value is needed to ask for more headcount for resources (developers, QA, etc).

Lack of “Marketing” of the Internal Product – Unlike the customer-facing product, internal products do not have a dedicated marketing team and don’t end up being celebrated like the main product does. Thus, the internal product mangers must take the role of “marketing” and ensure they make the company and executive realize the wins.

As I continue to build my career in product management, I hope to write down learnings and post them here in the near future. If you have things you would like to add to this guide, please comment below.

]]>https://jawwad.me/guide-internal-product-management/feed/53148Understanding the History of Disruptions in Retailinghttps://jawwad.me/understanding-history-disruptions-retailing/
https://jawwad.me/understanding-history-disruptions-retailing/#commentsTue, 14 Feb 2017 23:11:14 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3128These days it seems like that the popular media mostly highlights the inevitable doom of brick-and-mortar retailers and the boom of online retailers such as amazon and alibaba. However, in doing so, it is easy to overlook the valuable lessons thought by previous disruptive innovations in brick-and-mortar retailers and what building blocks made them successful before e-commerce stole the limelight of popular media. To do that, below, I will study these past disruptions of retailing – heavily influenced by Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation. With the appreciation of the past, I hope to write about the future or present of retailing industry. Before I begin, here are the definitions of common themes in this article; Definitions of Words Used Disruption, Disruptive, or Disruptive Innovation: All these words will be used interchangeably in the article below but will strictly adhere to the definition put forward by Clayton Christensen. In summary, disruptive innovation has three ingredients; enabling technology, innovative business model, and coherent value network. (Source: Christensen Institute) Retailing or Retail: These words are use broadly to refer to all types of retailers – supermarkets, grocery stores, etc. I realize the limitation and generalization of this approach. Thus, I hope to […]

]]>These days it seems like that the popular media mostly highlights the inevitable doom of brick-and-mortar retailers and the boom of online retailers such as amazon and alibaba.

However, in doing so, it is easy to overlook the valuable lessons thought by previous disruptive innovations in brick-and-mortar retailers and what building blocks made them successful before e-commerce stole the limelight of popular media.

Before I begin, here are the definitions of common themes in this article;

Definitions of Words Used

Disruption, Disruptive, or Disruptive Innovation: All these words will be used interchangeably in the article below but will strictly adhere to the definition put forward by Clayton Christensen. In summary, disruptive innovation has three ingredients; enabling technology, innovative business model, and coherent value network. (Source: Christensen Institute)

Retailing or Retail: These words are use broadly to refer to all types of retailers – supermarkets, grocery stores, etc. I realize the limitation and generalization of this approach. Thus, I hope to focus on an individual type of retailer in future articles.

Geographical Focus: This articles focuses on the North America retailing industry. However, it is my hope that such patterns can be applied to other parts of the world.

With definitions out of the way, let me start by laying out the fundamentals retailing.

The Fundamentals of Retailing

These fundamentals of retailing can be viewed as the building blocks with which a retailer exists to add value (i-e the mission) in order to make a profit (via the profit formula);

Mission of Retailing: The essential mission of retailing has always had four elements: getting the right product in the right place at the right price at the right time.

Profit Formula: The profitability in retailing is largely determined by two factors: gross margin and turn.

As a natural result of free market economy, here is how the retail industry has competed to maximize profits via disruptions up-until now;

Overview of Disruptions in Retailing

First, here is an overview of past disruptions in retailing – incentivized by the free markets and with the mission and profit formula stated above. The remaining of the article will explain this summary in detail.

The Original State of Retailing

Before 1800s, retailing was dominated by local merchants who provided the full service – keeping large inventories, extending credit, repairs, expert advice. As a result, these retailers were forced to charge high prices to earn a profit to stay in business.

This era is best defined by local corner stores with behind-the-counter cashiers who would serve you a product upon request. Here, the cashier or store owner served the role of educating the consumer about a product or recommending a product for a problem the customer walked in for. This is because the radio, TV, or print catalogs were yet to be invented and used as a marketing tool.

If you wish to explore more of the retail’s history, I suggest starting with this infographic on history of retail as I have only picked “disruption” milestones from it and expanded upon below.

First Disruption – Department Stores and Catalog Retailers

The first disruption in retailing came about in the late to early 20th century in the form of department stores and catalog retailers by businessmen like Marshall Fields and RH Macy. Unlike local corner stores with high-service (of knowing you by name), these stores tended to underperform in customer service by allowing more of the self-serve shopping cart environment.

Department stores began to aggregate products under one roof as their customers could now travel via railroad to shop. Furthermore, with the introduction of rural free delivery, the catalog retailers (like Sears) began offering large catalogues of products with money-back guarantees to a good chunk of the rural population – think of it almost like a print version of what amazon offers today to its customers.

Second Disruption – Malls and Specialty Catalogs

The second disruption of malls and specialty catalogs – unlike the rest – was a sustaining innovation and not a disruption one as it was similar to department stores but offered only better products via targeted selection through a multitude of stores attracting customers to the mall.

Furthermore, with general catalogs going mainstream, many specialty catalogs began to emerge that focused on focused product lines. For an example, think of Staples Catalog (focused on business supplies) vs Sears General Catalog (offers limited business supplies).

Third Disruption – Discount Department Stores

The third disruption gave birth to the stores many of us familiar with today – discount departments stores with a subset of specialty discount stores. Whereas the previous years were dominated by “getting everything under the roof”, discount department stores began to focus on high-turnover and focused product lines. In other words, these retailers began to specialize (hence the “specialty” discount store).

These allowed the retailers to establish a brand around an expertise. For example, HomeDepot began to focus on deeper product lines for home renovation and improvement.

The enabling technology for this phase of disruption was the advent of sophisticated information systems for distribution, logistics, and ruthless vendor management.

Fourth Disruption – Internet Retailing

The fourth retailing disruption, enabled by the Internet, is now the topic of popular interest and concern among the retailing industry. Most importantly because, it disrupted the essential mission of retail – product, place, price and time – very fundamentally as it can (arguably) deliver on all of them. Furthermore, it has a potential to further optimize the profit formula by optimizing inventories, selling a wide range of profit margin goods – that is the reason why investors poured money into Amazon despite it having a net loss for more than 10 years.

Starting with the product, an e-commerce website can carry an infinite selection of items that it’s brick-and-mortar output cannot match. An overused example is the amount of books available on Amazon versus a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Furthermore, amazon is innovating rapidly with same-day or one-hour delivery (place), customized pricing (price) and shopping anywhere at any time (time).

What is next in retail disruption?

Having understood the past patterns of disruption, some critical questions emerge such as;

Will e-commerce cripple the discount department stores just like how discount department stores crippled the department stores?

What strategic strengths of online retailers should do brick-and-mortar stores be cautious about?

The above questions, and even online retailers, deserve an article of its own. I hope to answer the above questions and more in the future as part of my Checkout51 project and forever learning.

Additional Notes

January 2019 – A former co-worker, Andrew McGrath, from Checkout51 reminded me that “It’s because our expectations are higher than ever before. Out of stock means you’ll probably never visit that store again, a rude customer service member damages your impression of the brand, returns that involve any questions about your motive are now pretty much unacceptable and retail outlets are inaccessible and frustrating to navigate. Controlling the brand experience in real life is hard, and we’ve got so good at online transactions that it’s tipped to the point where despite the less human experience of the Internet, it’s better than the imperfections of the humans we once preferred.” Source: LinkedIn Comment

]]>https://jawwad.me/understanding-history-disruptions-retailing/feed/43128Year in Review of 2016’s Experiments (for a Better Me)https://jawwad.me/year-review-2016s-experiments-better/
https://jawwad.me/year-review-2016s-experiments-better/#respondThu, 22 Dec 2016 23:19:38 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3021It is hard to believe that the fun and experiments for 2016 has come to an end. Before I get back into it for 2016, I wanted to take some time and self-reflect on all the self-improvement experiments – as I was the “subject” for each one of them. By doing so, I want to see what worked well for 2016 and what I can improve on for 2017. It’s already the end of the year, let’s begin; 3 Experiments that Had the Most Impact on me in 2016 Looking through my journal and end of year reflection, it became increasingly clear that some experiments were unsung heroes (or sneaky enemies) for what happened in 2016. So, below I will take a closer look at them in order; Live (Wakeup) and Die (Sleep) by Your Calendar: Without a doubt, the discipline to not only sleep and wake up on time but to do each activity as planned was the most impactful habit for 2016. Even though I was not disciplined 100% of the time (I am human after all) – for the time that I wasn’t disciplined it came with guaranteed rewards. What is a better investment than that? Keeping […]

]]>It is hard to believe that the fun and experiments for 2016 has come to an end. Before I get back into it for 2016, I wanted to take some time and self-reflect on all the self-improvement experiments – as I was the “subject” for each one of them.

By doing so, I want to see what worked well for 2016 and what I can improve on for 2017. It’s already the end of the year, let’s begin;

3 Experiments that Had the Most Impact on me in 2016

Looking through my journal and end of year reflection, it became increasingly clear that some experiments were unsung heroes (or sneaky enemies) for what happened in 2016. So, below I will take a closer look at them in order;

Live (Wakeup) and Die (Sleep) by Your Calendar: Without a doubt, the discipline to not only sleep and wake up on time but to do each activity as planned was the most impactful habit for 2016. Even though I was not disciplined 100% of the time (I am human after all) – for the time that I wasn’t disciplined it came with guaranteed rewards. What is a better investment than that?

Keeping a daily journal: As the saying goes, “life is not what happens to you but how you respond” (don’t hold me by this quote) – the journal certainly acted like a guide helping me articulate, solve, and plan things as they came up.

Strength training three times a week: if there is one area of your life that impact your performance in all other areas – it is your health. Period. This has helped me sleep better, improve my focus, and increase my energy level to get things done throughout the year. It’s

How to Improve personal development experiments for 2017?

It would be hypocritical of me to review experiments without talking about how to improve for 2016 – it is at the core of the forever learning principle. So here is how I will improve personal development experiments for myself and you;

Disciplined Blogging of Experiments: As mentioned above, I want to improve my discipline of reflecting and sharing my experiments with you for 2017. I want to send you regular monthly updates to not only help you but to hold myself accountable. Please if you don’t hear from me, write back to me!

With that said, I’ve been a enjoyable (yet uncomfortable) year full of personal growth. Thank you for being an awesome leader and hairs to the 2017!

]]>https://jawwad.me/year-review-2016s-experiments-better/feed/03021How I am Going to Cut Down Time Spent on Email in 2017https://jawwad.me/how-i-am-going-to-cut-down-time-spent-on-email-in-2017/
https://jawwad.me/how-i-am-going-to-cut-down-time-spent-on-email-in-2017/#commentsThu, 22 Dec 2016 22:16:16 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2952After the unpleasant (but not surprising) discovery that I spent 25% of my 2016 on communication (email, scheduling, calls, and social networking), I decided to spend an hour writing this blog post so I end up saving a lot more in 2017. Now, as I noted in the previous article, I want to make it clear that I love communicating with people – but I believe (as per forever learning principle) that quantity does not equal quality. Thus, there are always ways to improve it – that is what I will try to do below; Already Existing Optimizations for Communication (Email, Phone, and Social Networking) Before I start slaying analyzing the time spent, I want to re-view what protocols I current follow; Mobile and Desktop Notifications Turned Off: I have turned off all notifications on my desktop and mobile for email as part of an experiment last year. Filtered Inboxes – Only important email gets to my inbox while others get filtered. I update my filters whenever I find a spam email sneak into my inbox. With that said, lets look into how I can improve for 2017; Improvements for 2017 to Reduce Time Spent on Email For this part, […]

Filtered Inboxes – Only important email gets to my inbox while others get filtered. I update my filters whenever I find a spam email sneak into my inbox.

With that said, lets look into how I can improve for 2017;

Improvements for 2017 to Reduce Time Spent on Email

For this part, I spent a week analyzing my automated behavior (or muscle memory) associated with communication so I can catch bad habits. As a result, I found the following problems and articulated their solutions;

Time Consuming Problem

Time Saving Solution

Passive Checking for New Email – Personal

Check only between 8:30-9AM

Passive Checking for New Email – Work

Check only at 10:15am and then at 4pm

Passive Checking for New Email (Mobile)

ONLY check when Expecting something URGENT on the go

Going through "All" Emails Instead of "Inbox"

NEVER Check "All" but only Inbox

Time it Takes to "Create" a New Email

Create a Keyboard Shortcut for "Create" a new Email

In addition to the above improvements, I will be making the following improvements to how I write the email;

INFO – For informational purposes only, and there is no response or action required

DECISION – Requires a decision by the recipient

REQUEST – Seeks permission or approval by the recipient

COORD – Coordination by or with the recipient is needed

Summary Line: As the first line of the email which should quickly answer the five W’s: who, what, where, when, and why.

As an eager experimenter, I sent an test email out to my co-workers with that template and here are the results;

Here is the initial email I sent;

To my surprise, I got a clear reply within minutes;

I am hoping the above optimizations will save me at least 20 minutes a day (121 Hours in 2017) – more importantly, the saved mental energy. Wow, that is a lot of time (and energy)– I wonder what I can accomplish in those hours? With that said, I hope this has been a useful read for you as much as it has been an insightful one for me to write!

]]>https://jawwad.me/how-i-am-going-to-cut-down-time-spent-on-email-in-2017/feed/22952Analyzing How I spent my time in 2016 – and how to save some in 2017https://jawwad.me/analyzing-how-i-spent-my-time-in-2016-and-how-to-save-some-in-2017/
https://jawwad.me/analyzing-how-i-spent-my-time-in-2016-and-how-to-save-some-in-2017/#commentsThu, 22 Dec 2016 22:15:01 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2948“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ― Charles Darwin, The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin It is one thing to review the year from different categories and another to review it from the time logs – logs revealing how the finite resource was used throughout the year – almost like evidence against a case. So, in this year end reflection blog post, I will analyse the evidence of my time logs to reach some conclusion of how to make 2017 better. Again, I have set the same criteria as in my 2016 year end review so I don’t get biased as I begin evaluating my time below – making the year end reflections ineffective. Follow the “forever learning principle“ – which enforces staying close to the absolute truth regardless of how uncomfortable it may be as a biased review is not worth doing. Evaluate the holistic picture – all aspects of my life – so I don’t overlook other areas of my life due to success in another. Commit to “Articles” (blog posts) for areas that need improvement for 2017. These articles will be posted in 2017. (Please hold me accountable for […]

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ― Charles Darwin, The Life & Letters of Charles Darwin

It is one thing to review the year from different categories and another to review it from the time logs – logs revealing how the finite resource was used throughout the year – almost like evidence against a case. So, in this year end reflection blog post, I will analyse the evidence of my time logs to reach some conclusion of how to make 2017 better.

Again, I have set the same criteria as in my 2016 year end review so I don’t get biased as I begin evaluating my time below – making the year end reflections ineffective.

Follow the “forever learning principle“ – which enforces staying close to the absolute truth regardless of how uncomfortable it may be as a biased review is not worth doing.

Commit to “Articles” (blog posts) for areas that need improvement for 2017. These articles will be posted in 2017. (Please hold me accountable for these!)

Motivation behind Analyzing my Time Logs

As a person who enjoys keeping a daily journal, I often used to question how I spend the time that is outside the boundaries of the very pages of the journal. For example, if one day I had written in my journal to “publish a blog post” then how did I spend my finite time that day to accomplish that?

Okay, the above gives me a good idea of high-level snapshot. But where EXACTLY did I spend 8 hours a day?

After a bit of digging, I came to the following distribution; 25% on communication and scheduling, 17% on reference and learning, 16% on business work and learnings, 11% on utilities, 7% on social networking and remaining 25% are too low for me to categorize.

Graph of Total Time Spent in 2016 – on Digital Devices

The above stats are quite self-explanatory as to why I should pay close attention to how I spent this time – so I optimize and eliminate waste. To do that, I will deep dive into each one of the categories – from highest to lowest;

1. Time Log Category – Communication, Scheduling, and Social Networking

First on the chopping plate is “communication and scheduling” – a category in which I have spent a whopping 25% of my time in 2016. I am going to crunch some numbers and have a closer look at what is going on here!

Optimization for Communication and Scheduling in 2017

I am okay with time spent using the calendar – in fact I predict that I will spend a bit more time in 2017 given that I have decided to plan a lot more criticaly in 2017. For voice calls and messaging, I am okay too as I have done the experiment to turn off all notifications and check only at designated times.

For email (the beast that sucked most of my time!), I spent a few hours to hopefully save a lot more in 2017 by writing a separate article for it;

I plan to keep a close eye on this category for 2017 and (if necessary) do more experiments to save time from this category.

Note: I do realize the upside of email – its central to modern workplace and one can argue that not all email is unproductive. Therefore, I won’t be surprised at the end of 2017 if I discover that the time spent was almost the same despite my best efforts.

2. Time Log Categories – Reference, Business, Design, & Software Dev

On the bright side, reference, learning, business, design, and software development categories of my time log ended up taking 38% of my time (vs. 25% spend in scheduling and email).

Analyzing the productive categories!

This is the category of my time logs that I enjoy the most – which includes writing this very blog post! All my efforts to get better with planning (as mentioned in 2016-year-end review) is to increase the quality and quantity of work I do in this category. A big thank you goes to all my readers that amplify the value of the words I type here.

Now, having reviewed the biggest chunk of my time spent, lets pay some attention to the remaining bars on the graph;

Everything that does not fit into the previous categories, falls into the above four bars – utilities, entertainment, uncategorized, news/opinion. I consider these four bars as “!” (unproductive) because;

Utilities – is time spent on software updates, opening browser, navigating to files, etc. All of these tasks can be optimized over time via automation – shortcuts, hotkeys etc.

Entertainment – is time spent watching youtube, movies, etc. All of which can be replaced by more quality entertainment – time with friends, call a friend etc.

]]>https://jawwad.me/analyzing-how-i-spent-my-time-in-2016-and-how-to-save-some-in-2017/feed/22948My year in Review 2016 – with Score Card and Improvementshttps://jawwad.me/my-year-in-review-2016-with-score-card-and-improvements/
https://jawwad.me/my-year-in-review-2016-with-score-card-and-improvements/#commentsThu, 22 Dec 2016 22:05:00 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2895“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” ― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets As 2016 creeps to an end, I wanted to take some time to self-reflect on the past in hopes of slowing down the rapid passing of time – and consciously write the story for next year. It’s not that I have not squeezed out time here and there to reflect throughout the year – through means of journaling or experiments – but just like how a student despite having monthly or weekly exams still has to (and should) write the final exam to bring it all together; Likewise, below is my report card for 2016 – in which I graded myself for the full year – not just its best parts. Let me first set the criteria against which I will evaluate and self-reflect so I don’t go too easy on myself – and neither should you. More specifically, I will; Follow the “forever learning principle“ – which enforces staying close to the absolute truth regardless of how uncomfortable it may be as a biased review is not worth doing. Facts & Proof – I will use facts & proof wherever I can. Evaluate the […]

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.” ― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

As 2016 creeps to an end, I wanted to take some time to self-reflect on the past in hopes of slowing down the rapid passing of time – and consciously write the story for next year. It’s not that I have not squeezed out time here and there to reflect throughout the year – through means of journaling or experiments – but just like how a student despite having monthly or weekly exams still has to (and should) write the final exam to bring it all together; Likewise, below is my report card for 2016 – in which I graded myself for the full year – not just its best parts.

Let me first set the criteria against which I will evaluate and self-reflect so I don’t go too easy on myself – and neither should you. More specifically, I will;

Follow the “forever learning principle“ – which enforces staying close to the absolute truth regardless of how uncomfortable it may be as a biased review is not worth doing.

How did I do overall in 2016?

Lost a few close friends due to life events. Continue to nurture good friends and family.

Career and Work

70%

70%

Continue constant improvements in creating and launching products.

Finances

50%

60%

Paid off debt. Need to have a more secure financial future.

Health

70%

60%

Eating and Gym routine declined due to 9-5 work schedule. Aiming to get back on it with “planning your life” below.

Contribution

60%

60%

About the same. Continue to contribute by sharing learnings and donations.

Spirituality

70%

70%

About the same. Meditation requires more practice and “planning your life” below will help.

Living Environment

40%

70%

Made significant improvement from last year. Continue minor improvements.

Planning Your Life

50%

60%

Needs more Discipline. Must get better at planning and executing consistently.

Reminder: As per point #1 above, the forever learning principle, I am extremely critical on what is above a 70% as its easy for me to give myself an 80%+ in any one of the categories above. I much rather score myself lower to continue to improve in each aspect than to get comfortable with it.

Now, I am going to deep dive into each of the above categories in the report card – but do keep in mind that many of these areas of life influence each other. For example, I know that improvements in “planning your life” will bring marginal improvements in health, finances, and career and work.

How were my Relationships in 2016?

Facts from 2016 about Relationships

Lost Friends – Partially due to the shutdown of my startup and mostly due to other reasons – I lost two of my very close friends.

Dedicated family time on weekends (mostly Sundays) for my big awesome family

Improvements for 2017 for Relationships

Notes

Financial Well Being – Contribute and work towards personal family goals

Childhood Friends – Keep in touch with friends that have been there consistently even when we did not talk for months or years…

How did I do for Career and Work in 2016?

Career: I started working as a product manager – something I have loved to do on my own and something that gave birth to this blog

Improvements for 2017 for Career and Work

Notes

Career and Work is the category of my life which is my primary focus. The improvement in this category is essential to my progress and impact for other areas of my life – financial, contribution etc.

Articles and Blog Projects

Forever Learning Projects: I will post more of the projects – which includes experiments and new projects that I have not taken on. Please keep an eye out for me updating and adding to the project page.

Articles: I will post articles and notes related to my learnings in product management – which have been sitting on my hard drive. I hope to drive deeper insight into my work by these reflective articles

How was my financial health in 2016?

Facts from 2016 about my financial health

Student Debt: I paid off the student debt (which left my back account quite empty) so I will continue to build my financial well-being in the near future.

Improvements for 2017 about my financial health

Notes

Continue to excel in my chosen career field of product management so I can increase my learning and earning to impact other areas of my life.

How was my health (mind, body, emotions and spirit) in 2016?

Facts from 2016 about health

Shutdown of my startup and losing a few close friends had its impact on my mind and emotions.

My meditation schedule was inconsistent. I meditated about 10-20% of the year when the goal was to meditate daily.

Improvements for 2017 about health

Improve: the synergy and balance between the mind, body, emotions, and the spirit. I do plan to write an article or an experiment to improve on this.

Discpline: Continue the good eating habits and the gym routine

How was my Contribution to others in 2016?

Facts from 2016 about contribution

Writing and Blog – My focus continues to share what I learn for free with people and offer advice anytime to my readers – so do reach out to me!

Donation – I donate a certain portion of my income to charity to help. I hope to increase this as my income increases.

Improvements for 2017 about contribution

Articles and Blog Work

As stated above, I will increase the amount of work I share with others and put out there for free. Also, I hope to increase the amount I donate to the people in need.

How was my Spirituality in 2016?

Facts from 2016 about spirtituality

Meditation: Only done 10-20% of the time. I hope to increase that to 40%+ in 2017.

Improvements for 2017 for spirituality

The improvements from “health” above should trickle down to this category as well.

How was my Living Environment in 2016?

Facts from 2016 about living enviroment

I spent significant effort to organize my home and work environment to have the following factors;

Cleanliness

Minimalism

Dedicated Workspace

All of the three factors above reduce distractions and enhance focus to do things that really matter.

Improvements for 2017 about living evironment

Notes

Maintain the above standards by keeping the house clean and following the “inbox” experiment.

How was “Planning my Life” in 2016?

I saved the best (or worst performing) for the last because this area, in my opinion, has the most impact in all other areas of life. Given that I have constrained myself to not complain or blame others, I default to blaming myself – “all my fault”, thus, many goals that fell short in 2016 are a result of lack of planning on my part.

What makes “planning my life” extremely difficult is;

Discipline – Waking up each time and still going to work out regardless of the challenges at work or personal. That is, to fall in love with the process on days where you have little motivation or running late.

Execution – Get really good at making progress – focus and energy to deliver the results

Going Forward into 2017

Well, that concludes my year-in-review for 2016. I hope it serves as a food for thought for your reflections. I hope to still have many of you around for 2017!

]]>https://jawwad.me/my-year-in-review-2016-with-score-card-and-improvements/feed/32895Map of all Edtech Startup Companies as of January 2016https://jawwad.me/map-of-all-edtech-startup-companies-as-of-january-2016/
https://jawwad.me/map-of-all-edtech-startup-companies-as-of-january-2016/#commentsSat, 01 Oct 2016 11:12:48 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2752With so many educational technology startup companies (EdTechs) out there, it is sometimes hard to identify exactly what problem they are solving within the vast educational ecosystem. In this blog post I will take a look at all of the EdTech startup companies (as of January 2016) and organize them in a way in which you and I can better understand what category of problem do they solve and in what space do they operate (higher ed, K to 12 etc.). To do that, I have put together the following map of all EdTech Startup Companies; Now, if you’re wondering how this could be useful to you. Don’t worry, we will start by answering that question. Why I Made this Map of all Edtech Startup Companies When I was working on SharpScholar, my EdTech startup (also included in the map above), I found myself increasingly overwhelmed with the amount of EdTech startup companies out there. As an early-stage EdTech entrepreneur I wanted to answer some critical questions. Questions such as; Which area or problem within the educational ecosystem is most heavily funded? Where are most of the educational technology companies concentrated? What is the average age of a current Edtech company? Who […]

]]>With so many educational technology startup companies (EdTechs) out there, it is sometimes hard to identify exactly what problem they are solving within the vast educational ecosystem.

In this blog post I will take a look at all of the EdTech startup companies (as of January 2016) and organize them in a way in which you and I can better understand what category of problem do they solve and in what space do they operate (higher ed, K to 12 etc.).

To do that, I have put together the following map of all EdTech Startup Companies;

Map of All EdTech Startup Companies as of January 2016

Now, if you’re wondering how this could be useful to you. Don’t worry, we will start by answering that question.

Why I Made this Map of all Edtech Startup Companies

When I was working on SharpScholar, my EdTech startup (also included in the map above), I found myself increasingly overwhelmed with the amount of EdTech startup companies out there. As an early-stage EdTech entrepreneur I wanted to answer some critical questions. Questions such as;

Which area or problem within the educational ecosystem is most heavily funded?

Where are most of the educational technology companies concentrated?

What is the average age of a current Edtech company?

Who are my direct and in-direct competitors?

If you are a teacher, student, current, or aspiring EdTech entrepreneur this visualization would be of interest to you. I only hope I had done this earlier to better understand my competitive landscape and understand my startup strategy.

Note: this only includes startup companies and not the big guys such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple who are formidable players in this field. I encourage you to consider their work and competitive advantages as well.

Categories of Problems within the Educational Ecosystem

You can call them problems, opportunities, or value propositions – but regardless – these are the themes that EdTech startup companies define as their vision and mission for existence.

These categories of problems are visible across all segments – K to 12, higher education etc.

The edtech startup categories in the map are as follows;

Online Enablers

Consumer Focused

Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

Process Innovation

K-12 or Higher Educational Supplemental

Virtual Schools

Classroom Technology or Infrastructure

Data Platforms

Language Learning

Let’s define each of them for better understanding;

Online enablers

These are companies who are solely focused on “globalization of schools”. In other words, they are helping expand the four walls of traditional brick-and-mortar schools by helping them get customers (students) outside their city, municipality, or physical boundaries which may include internatoinal students. Think of it as businesses going global, these startup companies are helping them do the same.

Consumer Focused

These are startup companies focused on solving educational needs of the mass consumers (i-e students). They supply on demand lectures mostly in video formats across all kinds of subject matters. Many of them partner with enterprises to provide professional development learning opportunities for the workforce. Content is something they compete on and produce.

Learning Management Systems

These EdTech startup companies are focused on creating a robust operating system for universities that allows them to manage communications between their stakeholders – namely students and teachers. More specifically, it allows the teachers to have a repository to upload learning materials, post grades, etc. Their bases of competition is market leadership and ability to upsell additional features of their software platform.

Process innovation

Process innovation focused EdTech startup companies can be broken down into the ones that promote new pedagogy, training services, applied outcome based learning, innovative study materials, and blended learning intiatives.

Many of these edtech companies are focused schools for certain kind of career skills. For example, GA (General Academy) focused on hands-on training of current high-demand technology sector skills of development, design, product management etc.

K-12 and Higher Ed Supplemental

These EdTech startup companies are focused on creating learning materials to be used for teaching and consumption. They are solving the content creation, distribution, and consumption problem for schools ranging from K-12 to Higher Ed and beyond.

Virtual Schools

There are a few niche players within virtual schools EdTech category that are solely focused on bringing the day-to-day school online. Some of them are focusing on delivering such education to areas that don’t have access (or enough demand) to schools or quality curriculum.

Classroom Technology Infrastructure

This is one of the most populated category in which most EdTech startups are (knowingly and unknowingly). These startups and their products are closest to the day-to-day interaction between students and teachers and attempt to make that better through their products.

My startup, SharpScholar, also falls under this category. Furthermore, a good chunk of very niche “non-startup” companies also exist here. These are company started by groups such as Eric Mazur– learning catalytics (acquired by Pearson) and their latest, Perusall.

Data platforms

These data focused EdTech startup companies aim to better make sense of the enormous data sitting in the servers of educational institutions. They specialize in revenue optimization and cost reduction use cases with their data platforms. The stakeholders invovled with these startups are usually IT administration or upper management.

Language Learning

As the name may suggest, these language learning EdTech startup companies are focused on delivering innovative ways for humans to speak more than one language. The new startups seem to be more focused on peer-to-peer and mobile learning to deliver “bite-sized” learning for people on the go.

MOOCs

The massive online open source course were projected to make a bigger dent then they have so far. These educational startup companies usually partner with universities to deliver their courses online for free or for a price. Furthermore, they find ways to monetize the content from the student (certification, tutoring etc).

Adaptive learning

The adaptive learning EdTech startup companies are focused on solving just-in-time or personalized teaching for students. It will “adapt” to the learner profile and suggest materials are exercise accordingly.

Textbook disruptors

These EdTech startup companies are focused on integrating the way that the learning materials – particularly books – are distributed or sold. They are doing so by creating alternative market to buy and sell, rental, or even newer medium of distribution.

Where to go from this map?

I hope you use the above information as a starting point to research deeper into the existing startups, their customer, value propositions etc to better make decisions for your venture or idea. I hope to do a blog post later down the road about more detailed evaluation of each category – inaddition to this high-level overview.

I hope that was helpful for you. In addition to the above, I personally consulted the following resources when articulating the positioning and playing ground for my venture;

]]>https://jawwad.me/map-of-all-edtech-startup-companies-as-of-january-2016/feed/227528 Different Areas of Life to Improvehttps://jawwad.me/8-different-areas-of-life-to-experiment-with/
https://jawwad.me/8-different-areas-of-life-to-experiment-with/#commentsSun, 03 Jul 2016 16:28:08 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2681One of the most common questions I get asked is regarding how I choose which monthly experiment to do. I usually follow-up that question with another question, what areas of your life are causing the most damage or limiting your potential? Experiment with that part of your life. Having done five years of experimentation, I have made the mistake of choosing experiments that were relatively easy to do. If you truly want significant change, you must be able to face the truth and ask yourself the tough questions. Asking yourself those tough questions should reveal one of the following categories of your life that need improvement; Relationships Career and Work Finances Health Contribution Spirituality Living Environment Planning Your Life Let’s go over each one of them so you can better identify them and understand their importance. Relationships Relationships are arguably your single most important area of your life that influences all other factors. Beware, it is also the area of life that gets deprioritized when things get hard. Relationships include your friends, family, coworkers, mentors, or any other human being that interact with you on a daily basis. Having good relationships and being around people that make you happy is […]

]]>Balancing different “Areas of Life” is key to sustainable satisfaction.

One of the most common questions I get asked is regarding how I choose which monthly experiment to do. I usually follow-up that question with another question, what areas of your life are causing the most damage or limiting your potential? Experiment with that part of your life.

Let’s go over each one of them so you can better identify them and understand their importance.

Relationships

Relationships are arguably your single most important area of your life that influences all other factors. Beware, it is also the area of life that gets deprioritized when things get hard. Relationships include your friends, family, coworkers, mentors, or any other human being that interact with you on a daily basis.

Having good relationships and being around people that make you happy is probably the single most important factor in your long-term success and happiness. In fact, Harvard conducted a research to decode keys to a healthy life and came back with one of the answers for long-term happiness – quality of your relationships.

Career and work

Career and work play the second most important role in your life. Not only does it give you a sense of identity, it is also your source of income. Unfortunately, despite its importance, many of us are in jobs that we truly don’t enjoy or don’t make an effort to enjoy.

It is important that each individual takes the time to find deeper meaning in their work – regardless if there are carpenter or a doctor. Being satisfied with your work and knowing how your work contributes to improving the world is key to a successful and happy career.

Finances

I am beginning to get better (or even take responsibility) at this area of life, thus, I will post learnings when I have made shareworthy progress. Meanwhile, you can read some of my “finance” reflections from 2016.

Health and Wellness

It is hard to isolate health and wellness from all other areas of your life as it influences each and every one of them or vice-versa. For example, if you are not healthy and don’t feel your best, you’re not going to put your best effort into relationships, work, or any other initiatives that you take on.

In our daily hustle and bustle, we rarely take time to improve and nurture our health. Being healthy is simply an act of eating healthy food, exercising, meditating, and doing things to love yourself. Yes, that is easier said than done.

Contribution to the world

Do you ever wonder why people who amass great fortunes usually give it away? These people include Bill Gates, Warren buffet, and countless others. It is because us humans are wired (but many of us ignore it) to help others around us in whatever capacity we can.

We see this in all walks of life from homeless people helping each other to even the rich contributing to each other’s philanthropy goals.

Spirituality

Spirituality means different things for each one of us. For some of us it may be our religion, God, meditation, or even yoga. Any activity that allows you to find a deeper purpose and meaning in life is a vehicle for enhancing your spirituality.

Spirituality is important because it’s what you have left if everything is taken from you. It allows you to unplug from the worldly worries and find inner peace.

Living Environment

Have you noticed the dramatic difference between when you spend time in nature versus spending time in your messy bedroom? Yes, the living environment that surrounds you has a big impact on how you feel and hence your productivity.

For example, if your room is clean and organized, you do not waste energy trying to locate the item but you spend that time trying to do what you originally intended to do.

Planning your life

Back in the caveman days, we used to plan each week, month, and even the year in advance. Because if we didn’t that could mean the difference between life and death. We had to plan our hunts for food, plan for winter, and even take into account animal migration that might run us over i.e. the elephants.

However, once we came into urban cities we became lazy and none of us really had to plan our life – our lives were not on the line. If you want to grow through life, planning is essential. Life is too short to always be dreaming. Plan ahead and get it done.

I hope this blog post not only helped you identify various areas of your life that you can experiment with but also evaluate each one of them through the quiz. I hope to hear from you guys as you improve various areas of your life!

]]>https://jawwad.me/8-different-areas-of-life-to-experiment-with/feed/82681Experiment – Asking for Honest Feedback (Ouch!)https://jawwad.me/experiment-asking-for-honest-feedback-ouch/
https://jawwad.me/experiment-asking-for-honest-feedback-ouch/#respondThu, 09 Jun 2016 18:42:10 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2718For last month’s experiment, I wanted to involve people closest to me – family, friends, and co-workers. So, I wrote up a few questions – a survey – and emailed it to my friends. You can view this survey by clicking here. (Feel free to fill it up – I promise I will read it). I also got on the phone and got some verbal feedback. I asked each one of them to kindly answer each one of the following questions anonymously; What three words would you use to define me? What is something I can improve on? What memory of me stand out the most to you? Do you have any open thoughts you always wanted to share? Yes, asking anonymously is very important. Not having their identity attached to the answer gets them to open up and be honest. And here are the results that surprised me. Yes, I was expecting a lot of positive feedback and so should you because after all they are your friends. However, the most valuable feedback that you should look for is regarding your weaknesses. These are the things that can bring 10X improvement in your life – regardless of how painful they are. So, […]

I asked each one of them to kindly answer each one of the following questions anonymously;

What three words would you use to define me?

What is something I can improve on?

What memory of me stand out the most to you?

Do you have any open thoughts you always wanted to share?

Yes, asking anonymously is very important. Not having their identity attached to the answer gets them to open up and be honest.

And here are the results that surprised me.

Yes, I was expecting a lot of positive feedback and so should you because after all they are your friends. However, the most valuable feedback that you should look for is regarding your weaknesses. These are the things that can bring 10X improvement in your life – regardless of how painful they are.

So, here are some of my weaknesses that I heard from my friends (ouch some of them hurt!):

]]>https://jawwad.me/experiment-asking-for-honest-feedback-ouch/feed/02718The Forever Learning Principlehttps://jawwad.me/forever-learning-principles/
https://jawwad.me/forever-learning-principles/#commentsTue, 24 May 2016 22:37:48 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2541This is a living text that aims to capture the various principles that emerged from either accomplishing my goals or missing them. They have come out of my genuine reflections on my attempts towards growing through life. What are Principles? Why articulate and follow them? On my forever learning journey, I began to see trends when things went well and when it did not. There seemed to be certain simple (but hard to follow) principles that began to emerge. Therefore, I began articulating them – something like a formula to improve and follow for the next time. Principles are a way of successfully dealing with the laws of nature or laws of the game you are playing. Every game has principles and the successful players master them to achieve results – so does life and each category of it – personal and professional. Through my experiences, I have come to conclude that those who articulate, understand, and follow these (or their own) principles, grow through life as compared to those who are unaware or avoid living by these principles. Formula for Articulating Principles These principles emerge and get refined by real-life experiences that somewhat follow the following 5-steps; Working for […]

]]>This is a living text that aims to capture the various principles that emerged from either accomplishing my goals or missing them. They have come out of my genuine reflections on my attempts towards growing through life.

What are Principles? Why articulate and follow them?

On my forever learning journey, I began to see trends when things went well and when it did not. There seemed to be certain simple (but hard to follow) principles that began to emerge. Therefore, I began articulating them – something like a formula to improve and follow for the next time.

Principles are a way of successfully dealing with the laws of nature or laws of the game you are playing. Every game has principles and the successful players master them to achieve results – so does life and each category of it – personal and professional.

Through my experiences, I have come to conclude that those who articulate, understand, and follow these (or their own) principles, grow through life as compared to those who are unaware or avoid living by these principles.

Formula for Articulating Principles

These principles emerge and get refined by real-life experiences that somewhat follow the following 5-steps;

However, the most fundamental principles that influence all other areas of life are life principles. These principles influence all other principles that I develop – i-e fitness principles, writing principles, etc.

The Most Fundamental Life Principle

Before I share my life principles, it is important to understand my belief system that shapes them for me;

I believe there are an infinite number of laws of the universe and that all progress or dreams achieved come from operating in a way that consistent with them. We humans can either work in harmony with them or avoid them and face the consequences.

Finite Time – The faster you recover from setbacks and accomplish your goals the better off you are. To do so, you have to have a kryptonite-like attitude;

Attitude – Attitude in life is the single most important factor as quality of your decisions impact the quality of your life.

All of that finally brings me to the most fundamental life principle;

Life Principle: Truth – an accurate and non-biased understanding of reality – is critical for you to get to your end-goal.

What? Truth? Really? Yes (in my opinion). Let me explain.

As emotional creatures and imperfect humans, the truth is ugly most of the time and we try our best to hide it. Our ego, procrastination, fear of failure, insecurities among other things keep us far from the truth. This is the single factor behind why many self-help books are sold but very few success stories that follow.

Furthermore, truth is not obvious and it is sometimes very difficult to accept. For example, food chain (us eating other living things), looming death (finite time), or that goals always take longer to achieve.

However, regardless of how hard it is to accept, it is how nature works and humans are no different. For example;

Natural Evolution – the natural movement towards better adaptation to our environment is the greatest force in the universe. Our minds and bodies are also designed to evolve so don’t ignore it.

Desire to Evolve – is probably humanity’s most pervasive driving force. If you can learn to master this, you will succeed.

How do you stay close to the truth?

Here are the questions I ask myself to stay closest to the truth;

1. Do you allow pain to stand in the way of their progress or understand how to manage pain to produce progress?

This is the core law of nature to evolve one has to push the limits, which is painful, in order to gain strength – whether it’s in the form of lighting weights, facing problems, embracing fear or in any other way.

Pain + Reflection = Progress

Ask Yourself – How big of an impediment is psychological pain to your progress?

2. Do you avoid facing “harsh realities” vs face “harsh reality”?

Understanding what is real is the first step toward optimal dealing with it make better decisions.

For example- wanting to save animals from getting eaten up by lions without accepting that it is a law of nature. Or living life as there is infinite time, hence the procrastination.

Ask Yourself – How much do you let what you wish to be true stand in the way of seeing what is really true?

3. Do you worry about appearing good vs worry about achieving the goal?

People who worry about looking good typically hide what they don’t know and hide their weaknesses, so they never learn how to properly deal with them and these weaknesses remain impediments in the future.

People who are interested in making the best possible decisions are rarely confident that they have the best possible answers.

Ask Yourself – How much do you worry about looking good relative to actually being good?

4. Do you make their decisions on the basis of first order consequences or make their decisions on the basis of first second and third order consequences?

People who over way the first order consequences of decisions and ignore the effects that the second and subsequent order consequences will have on their goals rarely reach their goals

Example- First consequence of exercise is pain and time sink but following is better health and longevity. Most of us avoid it because of the intial pain.

Ask Yourself – How much do you respond to 1st order consequences at the expense of 2nd and 3rd order consequences?

Successful people understand that the bad things come that everyone and that is their responsibility you make to realize what they want them to be by successfully dealing with whatever challenges that they face

Ask Yourself – how much you let yourself off the hook rather than hold yourself accountable for your success?

In summary, I believe that you can achieve almost anything in your life if you can suspend your ego and take a no excuses approach to achieving your goals with open-mindedness, determination, courage and forever learning.

How could these principles help you?

Here is the bad news. These principles are of most value to each of us when they come from our own encounters with reality and reflection of these encounters – not from being taught or simply accepting someone else’s (or my) principles.

I have only come to truly resonate with them after experiencing them myself. To get started yourself, I would suggest to follow the 5-step approach to coming up with these principles and asking yourself the above questions – honestly.

How I (try my best) Practise These Principles Daily

I must confess that writing these principles is a lot easier to write vs living them. For many years, I struggled to live by them but have eventually gotten better – and I’m still at it. I have made the painful mistake of thinking and wanting to be perfect – I am not sure if that will ever come.

On a daily basis, I write in my daily journal which allows me to think through my principles by asking myself honest questions. Furthermore, I further strengthen my “muscle” or “weaknesses” by doing 30 day experiments.

]]>https://jawwad.me/forever-learning-principles/feed/62541Seductive Success Delusions that Fool Youhttps://jawwad.me/success-delusions-that-fool-you/
https://jawwad.me/success-delusions-that-fool-you/#commentsSat, 14 May 2016 14:45:21 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2436Why is it so hard for us to change for the better? “You have done a great job, Jawwad. Keep doing what you’re doing.”, said my mentor and handful of my friends after I appeared on TV for our company’s Dragons’ Den episode. Likewise, I have gotten similar positive reinforcements in various points of my life – getting into a good college, starting companies, writing here for past six years and everything in between. Yes, we all get such positive reinforcement on a daily basis from our parents, friends, and loved ones – even if it’s in the form of facebook or Instagram “likes”. Fortunately, (and unfortunately?) over the past few years I got to observe the effects of such positive reinforcement. The results from the observations were not pretty. The more successful we become, the more positive reinforcement we get – and more likely are we to experience the success delusion. – Marshall Goldsmith Success delusion is our belief that “I got here because I behave this way. Therefore, I must be successful for what I do.” As we grow older and more experienced in our area of expertise, the more the people around us let us know how […]

Here are those beliefs and how to make the most of them (instead of them getting the better of you);

Mental Belief 1: I Have Succeeded

I did not realize that I have this belief until I took a closer and honest look at myself. If you have the energy to wake up in the morning and charge into work (like I am as I write this), then you are very likely confident in yourself.

Here are the pros and cons of this belief;

Pros

Cons

– gives you faith to take risks required for your future success

– optimism and confidence to go to the next level

– inspire us to create an image that is consistent with this belief

– make us delusional as to our true self-worth

– make us ignore our weaknesses and process making bets

Example of “I have Succeeded” Delusion in Real Life:

Whenever a team is asked to vote anonymously their percentage (%) contribution towards a project, the sum of their answers is greater than 100%. Try it with your team.

Lastly, there is mounting research that indicates that experienced doctors, lawyers, and researchers get worse in their profession with time.

Mental Belief 2: I Can Succeed

Most successful people I have met believe (truly believe) that they have what it takes to make their goals happen.

Unfortunately, this belief is fundamentally very mentally challenging as it is hard for them to embrace the failing forward philosophy.

It’s the reason why some people raise their hand and say, “I will do it!” when co-workers asks for volunteers – and others cower in the corner, praying that they won’t be noticed.

Example of “I can Succeed” Delusion in Real Life:

“Lottery Mentality” – where people believe that they can succeed and continue playing despite the fact that it is luck and serendipity – not probability.

– self-efficacy, they believe they can see opportunities where other see threats

– internal locus of control, everything is within their control (am I a victim of this?)

– view luck and serendipity as a result of their “hard work”

– articulate simple and even self-promo explanations for rare events

Mental Belief 3: I Will Succeed

This is the belief that gets that telemarketer to call you the fifth time – despite getting hung up on. Successful people persist and are optimistic in their tasks.

However, this persistence and optimism has its downfall. This is also the belief that I struggle with the most.

Examples of “I will Succeed” in Real Life

Failed Business Executives – Every day we read about another very capable person who was not able to do his core job properly (CEO, CFO, etc). Most of them quote their inability to focus on the right things when they had the “fix everything” mentality.

Burnt Out Entrepreneurs – They tend to focus on all aspects of the business – getting sale or coding the website when those tasks are not even required. Instead, they should only focus on the bottleneck and build their company systematically.

How to Avoid Seduction from Success Delusions

Whenever we believe that our good luck or future is directly linked to our behavior, we can easily make false assumptions. To make things worse, achieving a fine balance between positive beliefs and honest self-evaluation is an art – something I am also still learning through these writings.

Now, if you’re like me who is trying to be immune to the success delusions, here are some notes and tips that I’m following for myself.

1. Accept that Change is Hard – You have to have a fail forward attitude and avoid the biases (cons) that each belief brings with itself.

2. Ask Key People in Your Life for Feedback – Explain them what success delusions are and take their feedback seriously (after all, these are the most important people in your life).

3. Analyze Yourself using “6 Levels of Change” Framework – Read this article to understand the different levels that influence you on a day-to-day basis.

4. Implement the Changes and Repeat. This part is easier said than done.

How do you do honest self-evaluations? Share your thoughts below.

Credits: Marshall Goldsmith, Mentors, Friends, Family and all others who stuck with me through the easy and hard times.

]]>https://jawwad.me/success-delusions-that-fool-you/feed/22436Experiment – For 30 Days I Smiled at Strangershttps://jawwad.me/experiment-for-30-days-i-smiled-at-strangers/
https://jawwad.me/experiment-for-30-days-i-smiled-at-strangers/#respondSun, 01 May 2016 18:51:48 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2728“A smile is happiness you’ll find right under your nose” – Tom Wilson Last month, while cleaning up my room, I stumbled across my Kodak printed baby pictures which I had tucked away a while ago. I decided to take a mini break from cleaning (i-e procastinate?) to browse through them. From the handful of pictures, one picture caught my attention. In that picture my eyes had tears and lips had a smile – I was smiling and crying at the same time. —> :’) That image particularly touched me, because at that time I was finding it hard to be happy and satisfied due to some recent events. So I decided to be my baby self and smile for 30 days of April at strangers, friends and even with myself 🙂 This was the most fun part: When I smiled at people, there faces went from *neutral face* to *confused face* to *hey he is smiling at me* to *hey I am going to smile too!* —-> 😐 —-> :\ —-> 🙂 Here is What I learned from April’s 30-Day Experiment: Body Language – When you smile, your brain tells itself that things are good. You can do reverse […]

Last month, while cleaning up my room, I stumbled across my Kodak printed baby pictures which I had tucked away a while ago.

I decided to take a mini break from cleaning (i-e procastinate?) to browse through them.

From the handful of pictures, one picture caught my attention. In that picture my eyes had tears and lips had a smile – I was smiling and crying at the same time. —> :’)

That image particularly touched me, because at that time I was finding it hard to be happy and satisfied due to some recent events.

So I decided to be my baby self and smile for 30 days of April at strangers, friends and even with myself

My Smile Pose for 30-Day Experiment

This was the most fun part: When I smiled at people, there faces went from *neutral face* to *confused face* to *hey he is smiling at me* to *hey I am going to smile too!* —-> —-> :\ —->

Here is What I learned from April’s 30-Day Experiment:

Body Language – When you smile, your brain tells itself that things are good. You can do reverse psychology on yourself!

Happiness is a Choice – It is not a pursuit or a destination. It is rather a choice made consistently despite the current conditions.
People are Nice – Only because someone is not smiling on the street does not mean they are not approachable or not nice. We tend to judge people on their “neutral” state.

We are Wired to Influence – As social creatures, we play a role in shaping our society, views, and culture – even by just smiling.

Friendly Conversations – The smile lead to conversations with people ranging from elderly to little kids! Each time, I learned something new!

]]>https://jawwad.me/experiment-for-30-days-i-smiled-at-strangers/feed/02728Notes on Technology Leadership Lessons Learnedhttps://jawwad.me/notes-technology-leadership-lessons-learned/
https://jawwad.me/notes-technology-leadership-lessons-learned/#respondTue, 19 Apr 2016 14:11:29 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2660On one hand I have had the good fortune of growing small technology teams but at the same time – on my other hand – I’ve had the bad fortune of making some critical mistakes (or take risks) that have made the whole process of growing and maintaining a high performing team extremely difficult. Therefore, I was keenly listening when Bohdan – a Serial CTO, Advisor, and Entrepreneur – was giving a talk on lessons he learned as a technology leader. His reflections came from his decade long experience as a technology leader helping build some of the most successful Canadian startup companies – Kik, Staff.com, Fixmo (acquired by google). Thanks to him, I was able to validate an update some of my learnings about building technology teams which I will share below under the categories of Hiring & Culture, Establishing & Evolving Processes, and Tools to Use. His notes are simple and are relevant for any leader responsible for growing and managing a team. Notes on Hiring & Culture Know Who NOT to Hire – Many people know the ideal profile of the candidate they want to hire but rarely are alert on the kind of person they don’t want […]

]]>On one hand I have had the good fortune of growing small technology teams but at the same time – on my other hand – I’ve had the bad fortune of making some critical mistakes (or take risks) that have made the whole process of growing and maintaining a high performing team extremely difficult.

Therefore, I was keenly listening when Bohdan – a Serial CTO, Advisor, and Entrepreneur – was giving a talk on lessons he learned as a technology leader. His reflections came from his decade long experience as a technology leader helping build some of the most successful Canadian startup companies – Kik, Staff.com, Fixmo (acquired by google).

Thanks to him, I was able to validate an update some of my learnings about building technology teams which I will share below under the categories of Hiring & Culture, Establishing & Evolving Processes, and Tools to Use.

His notes are simple and are relevant for any leader responsible for growing and managing a team.

Notes on Hiring & Culture

Know Who NOT to Hire – Many people know the ideal profile of the candidate they want to hire but rarely are alert on the kind of person they don’t want on the team. “Never, never hire the brilliant @$$hole”, is something he kept emphasizing.

Example: Donald Trump – We all knew what kind of presidential candidate we DO want but rarely realized who we DON’T want. Hence, we somehow let him be “hired” into the public limelight.

Why Not hire brilliant “@$$hole”? They do more harm than damage. They are not team players, ignore processes, work on their own and eventually start working on side projects of their own.

Skills and Personality are virtually irrelevant. Focus on culture aptitude and cognitive ability.

Look for people who ask questions, listen and act.

Notes on Establishing & Evolving Processes

Be very careful with this double edged sword

Use them but always question them. They tend to become rituals with absence of thought and rationale behind doing them.

Example: A company had the culture of laying out requirements on paper on the wall as well as on JIRA. As time went on, the company continued to maintain both the copies – electronic and digital which caused a lot of pain. Surely, the team members did not intend to do this but it just happened as a byproduct of their established processes.

Notes on Tools and Technologies for Teams

Provide all the tools that the teams need to perform (within rational reason)

]]>https://jawwad.me/notes-technology-leadership-lessons-learned/feed/026606 Powerful Levels of Change that Actually Lasthttps://jawwad.me/levels-of-change/
https://jawwad.me/levels-of-change/#commentsTue, 05 Apr 2016 20:32:48 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2217“I just need to lock myself into a room for 8 hours and get all of this work done!” I told myself repeatedly on a typical bad day in 2011. I had just graduated from high school and some how persisted and succeeded in getting into a college of my choice. That day was one of the many days in which I mostly focused on behaviours (techniques, tactics, and routines) to get to my end goal – school work, job, gym etc. Fast forward to today, I seldom focus on behaviours alone to get to my goals. Now, if we were robots than focusing on just the behaviour alone when trying to change for the better would work. Lucky for us, we are humans. We need more than just a behavior to do. I am certain that all of us have an activity (sports, hobby, reading, browsing the web, or social media) that we do without any effort. Did you have to force that behavior out of you? Then why do we have to do it for other things in life – gym, work, study, and self-development? Below I will breakdown how we can change for the better to get […]

That day was one of the many days in which I mostly focused on behaviours (techniques, tactics, and routines) to get to my end goal – school work, job, gym etc. Fast forward to today, I seldom focus on behaviours alone to get to my goals.

Now, if we were robots than focusing on just the behaviour alone when trying to change for the better would work.

Lucky for us, we are humans. We need more than just a behavior to do.

I am certain that all of us have an activity (sports, hobby, reading, browsing the web, or social media) that we do without any effort. Did you have to force that behavior out of you? Then why do we have to do it for other things in life – gym, work, study, and self-development?

Below I will breakdown how we can change for the better to get any goal accomplished over time – school, job, health, or personal. Here is the overview;

Reality: Personal Development Industry Sells “Overnight Success”

Do you remember the last time you saw a fitness product ad? A Belt that gives you six-pack abs! Or a magic pill that makes you slim overnight and fit into that dress! Yes, these kind of ads are one of the many products that try to sell you the “overnight success” formula. Unfortunately, they make millions of dollars each year.

Examples of “Overnight Success” Products & Services

Just like the fitness industry, the personal development industry is flooded with “overnight success” formula as well. I myself have spent hundreds of dollars and more importantly countless hours devouring such personal development products.

These products or services usually have the following theme;

They focus on behaviours or outcomes. Do XYZ behavior and You will be happy / successful

Example: Wake up Early, work hard, and be passionate.

They focus on unrelated traits of successful people.

Example: Like steve jobs, be passionate and be a strict boss.

They focus on QUICK and painless results

Example: No sweat, no fatigue, no diet (yes that sounds like an ad you may have seen!)

None of the two industries, fitness and personal development, would make much money if they sold products named “5 Years for a Healthy Mind and Body” or “Live a Meaningful Life in 10 Years”. They give you steroids, without wanting to deal with the side-effects or the burnouts you will have trying to follow their advice or formula.

Truth: Personal Development is a “Lifetime Success”

Being a victim of the “overnight success” for both the personal development and fitness industry is partially what inspired me to start this blog on forever learning – writing and self-experiments – and not do what many others do in this domain.

Let’s look at the two industries with the “Lifetime Success” lens;

Fitness Industry – It requires a long time (2+ years) of constant self-improvement (diet, exercise, meditation etc) and failing forward.

Personal Development – It requires a long time (with a deeper purpose) of why you want to be improving yourself and courage to fail forward.

Do you see the trend? It is not what (behavior) to do (exercises, habits, etc) that people need help with – it is much deeper than that. Let look at that depth next;

Learn: 6 Levels of Change to Master Any Goal

Now here is a framework that athletes and soldiers have mastered – a framework that works holistically and not just alone on behaviors (what).

6 Levels of Change are a hierarchy of levels within an individual – me and you;

Spiritual

Identity

Beliefs

Capabilities

Behaviors

Environment

Any activity or task that we want to do (e.g eat health or meditate) goes through these six levels. Think of these six steps and roughly the process our brain follows – without us knowing about it. Yes, this is the reason why we can’t sometime explain why we spend 5+ hours watching TV when we want to be in better shape – our brain out-smarts’ us.

Therefore, the function of each level is to synthesize, organize, and direct the interaction to the level below it.

For example, if you change something at the “spiritual” level it radiates downward and effect other levels – identity, beliefs, etc. However, changing something on a lower could does not necessarily affect the upper levels (but can inspire you to self-reflect and understand why).

Levels of Change

Purpose

Questions to Ask

Spiritual

Vision and Purpose

For whom? For what?

Identity ? Who am I

Permission & Motivation

Who?

Belief ? Value and Meanings

Mission

Why?

Capabilities ? Strategies & States

Maps and Plans

How?

Behaviors ? What to do?

Actions and Reactions

What?

Environment ? External Context

Constraints & Opportunities

Where? When?

Example: 6-Levels of Change for an Olympic Athlete

Let’s look at an example of how an Olympic athlete, David Rudisha, who I have studied closely as part of my hero journal. He is the current Olympic champion and world record holder in 800 meters’ race. His pace was so fast, the last placed athlete in that race would have won gold at the previous three Olympics.

Overview of David Rudisha’s 6 Levels of Change

Let’s break down his six levels of change and study them in detail – starting from highest to lowest;

Spirituality

Question to Ask: For Whom? For What?

Purpose it Serves: Vision & Purpose

Definition: Spiritual level of change has to do with our sense of being part of something bigger than ourselves – a very deep level that is beyond ourselves.

David Rudisha’s Spirituality (for 800 meters’ race): He believed that he was the chosen one by God to carry the family tradition and represent his people – with the end goal of inspiring and helping them.

Identity

Question to Ask: Who am I?

Purpose it Serves: Permission & Motivation

Definition: Identity level relates to the sense of who you are – what make me, me?

Beliefs

Definition: Beliefs are related to judgements and evaluations we make about ourselves in the world around us. It is the self-talk that comes whenever you have to do something.

David Rudisha’s Belief (for 800 meters’ race): David Rudisha trained hard and trained with injuries. It was his belief that complete this mission regardless of the everyday obstacles.

Capabilities

Question to Ask: How?

Purpose it Serves: Maps & Plans

Definition: Capabilities level deal with mental strategies and maps people develop to guide their behavior. For example, working out habit for an athlete is much easier than a person who has never worked out before. It makes practising easier.

David Rudisha’s Capability (for 800 meters’ race): Rudisha had a dedicated coach and an exact practise program that he went over and over again.

Behavior

Question to Ask: What do I do?

Purpose it Serves: Actions & Reactions

Definition: These are the physical actions that we use to interact with the people and environment around us. For example, an athlete if taken to the gym will work out as compared to a normal individual.

David Rudisha’s Behavior (for 800 meters’ race): David Rudisha took almost every opportunity in which he had to travel and turned it into a sprint – which he measured and improved on.

Environment

Question to Ask: Where? When?

Purpose it Serves: Constraints & Opportunities

Definition: Environment level is the most tangible part around us. It is made up of factors such as the type of external setting, weather, food, and resources available.

David Rudisha’s Environment (for 800 meters’ race): He lived close-by his training facility (opportunity) and limited other resources (constraints) available to him to do something else.

Now, lets look at all of his six levels of change together;

Overview – David Rudisha’s Six Level of Change

You must have noticed that all of his levels of change were very interconnected – from spirituality to his environment. Also, not all levels are black and white as some of them overlap. The key is to understand the hierarchy and how they effect each other.

For athletes and professionals like David Rudisha, its not only about the What (behaviors) its about the holistic picture – the six levels which answer for whom, who, why, how, what, and where.

Apply: Use 6-Levels of Change for Your Next Challenge

Now, lets have a worksheet that you can apply to your next big goal. For example, if you want to loose 30 pounds, start a business, write a book or improve your relationships – just follow the steps below;

Step 1 – Write Your Goal Down

Just simply write it down in one sentence.

Step 2 – Fill Out Your 6-Levels of Change

After you have clearly articulated your gaol, take some time to fill out the yellow boxes below. This will develop a deeper and much stronger meaning behind what you want to do.

Step 3 – Improve them as You Go

This step is what differentiates between an amateur and a professional. Amateur players give up when an obstacle presents itself i-e the weather is bad so I will skip the gym! However, professionals play regardless of the obstacles at hand.

Want to see that in action? Watch any boxing match of a champion (my favorite, Muhammad Ali) – even after punches thrown at them they come back for second rounds. Its is highly accepted that strength alone is not the winning formula – you need mental toughness to intimidate the opponent.

Every time you stumble or fail to do the work to get there, come back and question your levels of change. Do you have a strong enough why? for what?

]]>https://jawwad.me/levels-of-change/feed/152217Understanding Flipp’s Business Model Canvashttps://jawwad.me/flipp-business-model-canvas/
https://jawwad.me/flipp-business-model-canvas/#respondSat, 02 Apr 2016 01:00:15 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2402In this blog post we will analyze Flipp‘s business model canvas. Flipp can be best described as a shopping application with flyers, coupons, and shopping list (soon to be adding a lot more features). The company recently raised an impressive $61M in funding after their previous $1M round. The method for this analysis is via a business model canvas – a framework that charts various elements of the business that come together to create value – a business. By the end of this blog post, you will have a high-level understanding; Market Business Problem Business Solution Customer Segments UVP or USP Revenue and Costs More importantly, you will come to understand how all of these elements relate and support one another. If you are a visual person, here is a video overview. For text, please scroll down to the next section. Video Overview – Flipp Business Model Canvas Text Overview – Flipp’s Business Model Canvas Here is the business model canvas of flipp. It includes customers, problems, solutions, unique value proposition, unfair advantage, channels, cost and revenue streams. I hope to go in more detail regarding the startups in retail and grocery space in the near future. [button link=”http://www.jawwad.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Flipp-Lean-Canvas.pdf” type=”icon” newwindow=”yes”] […]

]]>In this blog post we will analyze Flipp‘s business model canvas. Flipp can be best described as a shopping application with flyers, coupons, and shopping list (soon to be adding a lot more features). The company recently raised an impressive $61M in funding after their previous $1M round.

The method for this analysis is via a business model canvas – a framework that charts various elements of the business that come together to create value – a business.

By the end of this blog post, you will have a high-level understanding;

Market

Business Problem

Business Solution

Customer Segments

UVP or USP

Revenue and Costs

More importantly, you will come to understand how all of these elements relate and support one another.

If you are a visual person, here is a video overview. For text, please scroll down to the next section.

Video Overview – Flipp Business Model Canvas

Text Overview – Flipp’s Business Model Canvas

Here is the business model canvas of flipp. It includes customers, problems, solutions, unique value proposition, unfair advantage, channels, cost and revenue streams.

I hope to go in more detail regarding the startups in retail and grocery space in the near future.

Other Notes: Future of this Space

Having worked in retail, B2B software, and ecommerce, I am particularly excited about the innovations that startups and new companies are (or will) bring to this space.

I have first had experience in working for a retailer that was once the largest chain in Canada – Zellers. Over the 3+ years I worked for them, I experienced how the digital competitive landscape changed the game and we failed to engage the customers.

This space will remain one of my “itches” that I hope to scratch in the near future.

Recommended Readings

If you have a basic level understanding of the retail landscape and want to better understand the changing taste of buyers (or other players in the business model), I recommend the following reads;

Keep an eye on latest Food / Retail / Grocery Startups – Doing this will help you build a gut of where the industry is going. I do that by keeping an eye on retail startups on crunchbase.

Read annual reports or Press Releases of Public Retail Companies – This will give you a sense of where they see opportunity and what they classify as risk in their public-facing documents.

Talk to Executives in the Field – Reach out to people and experts who are at the forefront of this field. I have had success by getting mentored by some of the best co-founders and entrepreneurs in this space – both successful and unsuccessful.

]]>https://jawwad.me/flipp-business-model-canvas/feed/0240230 Days of Positive Self Talkhttps://jawwad.me/30-days-of-positive-self-talk/
https://jawwad.me/30-days-of-positive-self-talk/#respondFri, 01 Apr 2016 18:54:14 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2737Yup! I talked to myself for 30-days. With the month ending, March’s 30-day experiment of Positive Self-Talk comes to an end too! Why did I choose this experiment? Quick story time. It was a regular Monday morning and my two little nieces of age 1 and 2 came to visit me (They make me want to be a kid again!). Even though they were downstairs and I was upstairs working, they like to run around and yell gibberish – like typical kids do. So, to eliminate their noise I started talking out loud to myself. What EXACTLY did I do each day for 30-days? I did positive self-talk out loud – “Jawwad, you are going to write this email and then go make that call like a boss! xD”. Results of 30-Days of Positive Self-Talk I must say, this has been one of my most FUN 30-day experiment! I am even talking out loud as I write this! This is how positive self-talk helped me; It shuts off your fearful brain which gets intimidated by uncertainty so you get stuff done! Combats your self-esteem, confidence, and even depression on blue days Reduces procrastination by acting as your coach Improve your conscious […]

]]>https://jawwad.me/30-days-of-positive-self-talk/feed/0273730 Days of Being EXTRA Kind to Othershttps://jawwad.me/30-days-kind-strangers/
https://jawwad.me/30-days-kind-strangers/#respondThu, 31 Mar 2016 12:22:13 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=2685On a very typical day many years ago, I was sitting in the library with my head down to cram for the upcoming exam. Caught up in my own worries and fears, I failed to notice a high school classmate who could have benefited from my kindness – or at the very least acknowledgement. Luckily though, he came around the second time and this time I made the contact that I should have the first time around. You can read the rest of the story here. Why I am developing the habit of being extra Kind That day before leaving the library, I took some time to reflect in my daily journal about how encounters like these made me happier and feel good about myself. Therefore, before wrapping up my notes for the day I made a note in my journal to do 30-day experiment of being extra kind to make others feel good and happier along with myself – a win-win! From my observation of the times when I really helped someone else I realized that it was as simple as 1-2-3 (but hard to put into practice); Notice – Look around and see if you can be kind to people Smile – Make […]

]]>On a very typical day many years ago, I was sitting in the library with my head down to cram for the upcoming exam. Caught up in my own worries and fears, I failed to notice a high school classmate who could have benefited from my kindness – or at the very least acknowledgement. Luckily though, he came around the second time and this time I made the contact that I should have the first time around. You can read the rest of the story here.

Why I am developing the habit of being extra Kind

Therefore, before wrapping up my notes for the day I made a note in my journal to do 30-day experiment of being extra kind to make others feel good and happier along with myself – a win-win!

From my observation of the times when I really helped someone else I realized that it was as simple as 1-2-3 (but hard to put into practice);

Notice – Look around and see if you can be kind to people

Smile – Make yourself approachable and friendly

Help – When you see it, try to help them

For example, one day a lady spilled coffee on herself as she was hurriedly on-boarding the train. I took notice as I was paying attention to my surroundings (instead of on an inhumane screen). I took out some napkins and gave a smile. She gladly accepted them and cleaned the coffee spillage.

How is being extra kind to other going so far?

After many years of practising being kind to others, I have realized and appreciate its difficulties.

As humans we have egos, jealousy, and other emotional factors that sometimes make it very difficult for us to be kind to others and be openhearted. Therefore, I believe regular practice and meditation of being kind to others unconditionally is the key to the success of this habit.

I hope to share lessons learned and more tips as I continue to apply this 30 day experiment habit in my day to day life.

]]>https://jawwad.me/30-days-kind-strangers/feed/02685How to Love Yourselfhttps://jawwad.me/how-to-love-yourself/
https://jawwad.me/how-to-love-yourself/#commentsMon, 14 Mar 2016 19:06:49 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2129“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance” Oscar Wilde As I grew older, a funny thing started happening with my friends and I. With “growing up” came the realization of responsibilities – graduation, career path, and earning money. Therefore, each one of us went to do those things. However, a good chunk of us forgot to take care of the fundamentals ….. what has been painful to witness over these years is the damage that is has caused; During High School – I noticed friends smoking, drinking, and speaking to meet external expectations regardless of what it did to their mental and physical health. During University – In business school, I noticed friends choosing career paths for fame and money (or simply not knowing) regardless of what it did to their sense of purpose (mental health) or lifestyle (health). After University 9-5 Job – I noticed some friends not satisfied with the work they were doing at their jobs. Yet they worked 10+ hours a day exhausting their mental and physical health. In this path to “growing up” we forgot to… We forgot to love ourselves. What exactly is self-love? Self-love is not how you feel about yourself – that will change from moment […]

As I grew older, a funny thing started happening with my friends and I. With “growing up” came the realization of responsibilities – graduation, career path, and earning money.

Therefore, each one of us went to do those things. However, a good chunk of us forgot to take care of the fundamentals ….. what has been painful to witness over these years is the damage that is has caused;

During High School – I noticed friends smoking, drinking, and speaking to meet external expectationsregardless of what it did to their mental and physical health.

During University – In business school, I noticed friends choosing career paths for fame and money (or simply not knowing) regardless of what it did to their sense of purpose (mental health) or lifestyle (health).

Its easier to be careless and unloving to ourselves than others. Why because how you treat yourself is a moral issue – you can get away with it (but the guilt or regret will come back).

The only difference is that if you do it badly, nobody else is going to call you on it.

Very few people will stop you and say, “Hey man! Are you taking care of your health – avoiding junk food, hitting the gym, and meditating?”. But almost everyone will ask you, “How is work? What are you up-to?”.

Lessons Learned

Love Yourself – Take care of your nutrition, exercise, and mind at all costs.

Beware the Societal Priorities – Unfortunately, they don’t always have your well-being of mental, physical, and social in mind.

Don’t Shorten Your Already Short Life – by sacrificing the essentials of nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

]]>https://jawwad.me/how-to-love-yourself/feed/32129Strategy Fundamentals for Early Stage Technology Start-upshttps://jawwad.me/strategy-fundamentals-for-early-stage-technology-start-ups/
https://jawwad.me/strategy-fundamentals-for-early-stage-technology-start-ups/#commentsThu, 03 Mar 2016 17:47:21 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2161Purpose: The purpose of the blog post is to share fundamental lessons regarding strategy for early-stage technology startups. A key part of this attempt will be to provide tangible frameworks that the founders of early-stage ventures can use as they are going through the discovery and customer development process to transition from a startup to a company. Scope: Early Stage Technology Startup and Pre-Product Market Fit Inspiration: This blog post comes out of having experienced articulating strategy (not necessarily effectively but learned the hard way) for non-startup (i-e big companies) during my undergraduate studies and for two early stage technology start-ups. Similar to how I highlighted that startup ventures face unique challenges with selling, they also have unique challenges with strategy. Credits: Upfront credits go to experience, mentors, Steve Blank’s Books for Startups, Michael Porter and others who I may have missed. Key Early Stage Startup Strategy Lessons Learned Before, I get into the theoretical breakdown. Here are the nuggets of lessons I have learned from experience; Write it Down – it is the key to learning fast for entrepreneurs. Importance of Strategy – It is important to think about Strategy from Day One Working Hard Vs Working Smart – Not […]

]]>Purpose: The purpose of the blog post is to share fundamental lessons regarding strategy for early-stage technology startups. A key part of this attempt will be to provide tangible frameworks that the founders of early-stage ventures can use as they are going through the discovery and customer development process to transition from a startup to a company.

Scope: Early Stage Technology Startup and Pre-Product Market Fit

Inspiration: This blog post comes out of having experienced articulating strategy (not necessarily effectively but learned the hard way) for non-startup (i-e big companies) during my undergraduate studies and for two early stage technology start-ups. Similar to how I highlighted that startup ventures face unique challenges with selling, they also have unique challenges with strategy.

Constantly Revisit– Strategy is creativity and theory combined. You must think it over, sleep with it, and update as you learn from the marke.

Now, let’s start with some basic definitions.

Definitions

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

Let’s cover some basics so we are all on the same page.

What is a Startup?

A startup of the temporary organization builds to search for solution to a problem via a scalable, repeatable, and profitable business model that can deliver fast growth. The defining activity of a startup is experimentation – to learn and iterate for the discovery of the profitable business model. (Definition Adapted from Steve Blank, Eric Ries, & Ash Maurya)

What is Strategy?

“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” – Michael Porter

Early Stage Startup Strategy Fundamentals

And early-stage startups strategy answers critical questions about what the startup should do and not do in order to find a repeatable, scalable, and profitable business model. It makes these integrated choices to create a sustainable (even if just temporarily) advantage within its market relative to rival startups and market incumbents.

Strategy helps a startup venture decide how to use its internal (HR, talent, knowledge etc.) and external capabilities to reach its goal.

Example of Strategy as Integration Set of Choices

Alibaba vs. Amazon – Alibaba took advantage of its external resources of government regulation and manufacturing hub to create a marketplace for consumers and wholesalers. Amazon used its external and internal capabilities to move towards same-day delivery etc.

Key Takeaway – different internal and external capabilities call for different strategic choices

Note: Example above have been simplified for demonstration.

Early Stage Startup Strategy Fundementals

Essentially, for an early stage venture the choices and trade-offs are in the following areas of the business model or lean canvas;

The good news is that most startups don’t struggle with later stage strategy as you have talent, investors, VC firms, and off-the-shelf books to guide you. Therefore, we will not dwell too much into this part.

Combinatorial game theory – involves two-player games of perfect knowledge such as chess or checkers. Notably, combinatorial games have no chance element, and players take turns.

Classical game theory – players move, bet, or strategize simultaneously. Both hidden information and chance elements are frequent features in this branch of game theory, which is also a branch of economics.”

With these definitions in mind, let’s go through some fundamental strategic decision making tools – chronologically.

Strategic Decision Making Tools

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

Strategic decision making should follow a chronological order. Always start by analyzing the market, industry, and then craft your game.

Analyzing the market is like assessing the environment (industry dynamics) before planting your crops (product) so you know what kind of soil, water, and seasons you (resources) you need for your startup to sustain.

Analyzing your startup’s environment for ensuring survival.

Market: Know Your Starting Positing

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

One of the very first decisions that shape your strategy is which market you decide to operate in. Unfortunately, this “decision” is not made consciously due to a lack of understanding of the founders. Therefore, they are not able to focus on key requirements to succeed in their market.

This is how each type of startup market has different customers, customer needs, performance factors, competition and risks.

Market Type Characteristics

For example, a new product in an existing market is purely about the product – product features and performance. Whereas, a new product in a re-segmented low cost market is about providing good enough value for the price (Dollarama, Chinese Phones etc).

Therefore, it is essential for a startup to answer the question “What kind of startup are we?” before any sales initiatives. However, that does not mean that you should not revisit this once you begin customer discovery, customer validation, and customer creation through entrepreneurial selling.

Now, with an initial hypothesis of which market you serve in, it is a good type to understand which industry you are operating in.

The true power of the framework lies in understand the industry holistically using the five forces of – threats of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and bargaining power of suppliers.

Threats of New Entrants

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

This defines the degree to which a startup can expect competition because number of new companies or startups it faces keep increasing. Direct competitors are rivaled are other startups that enter the market with a value proposition that is nearly identical to that a given incumbent startup is offering its customers.

The high threat of new entrants limits how much of value and incumbent startup can capture for itself, a limitation on profitability, and high operational costs for competing within the industry. Therefore, it is important for start of founders to think critically about how they might compete in a hot new sector.

The seven major sources of barriers to entry are;

Economies of Scale – You are able to product large quantity which drives the unit costs down. Think of Walmart – its bully cost advantage and its ability to keep small business out … even take them out!

Customer Switching Costs – think about changing your email address from gmail to outlook.com and vice versa. The harder the switching costs the better it is for an existing startup.

Capital Requirements – the higher the requirements the better it is for existing startups but not new ones.

Cost Advantages Independent of Size – Incumbents usually have significant cost advantages that cannot be replicated by a potential entrant.

Unequal Access to Distribution Channels – Think about the diamond industry and its almost monopoly over supply and hence prices. Incumbents can have channels that are controlled and locked up by them.

Restrictive Government Policy – Think about the Alibaba example above. Startups in highly government regulated industries will find that incumbents are uniquely positioned to abide by the regulation – the state of almost all copy-cat china startups.

When to Consider Threat of New Entrants

Initial Positioning for Early Stage Ventures – If you establish yourself in high barrier to entry place, you will inevitable put your startup on a path that requires very different resources (see market type). You must be absolutely sure what you are getting into.

For example: Elon Musk starting a rocket company made some sense as he had financial backing and connections with NASA. You starting it in your garage, not so much.

Market-Leaders for Late Stage Ventures – Startups that are early and become iconic in their category must understand how to protect their position by building barriers to entry.

For example: Dropbox being the “household name” for cloud storage is beginning to offer seamless integration and API to build a unique advantage over hundreds of other cloud storage solutions.

Examples – Threats of New Entrants

Think Uber and “Uber-Copy-Cats” there are hundreds of startups even in North America and in the east offering identical services. This is another reason why uber realizes the need for cash for speedy land grab.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

Suppliers become powerful when there are only a handful of them and do not rely on startups for majority of their revenues.

Examples – Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Intel and Windows – Almost all PC manufacturers struggle to cut a profit yet Intel and Windows (as suppliers) collect a fat paycheck.

Academia Publishers – Having dealt with the educational industry, there are only a few players that are determined to protect their copyrights and intellectual property.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Power buyers can impact the profitability of a group of startups that supply them with goods or services.

Here are the factors that contribute to powerful buyers;

A small number of buyers with each purchasing large volumes as compared to others

Buyers don’t have any switching cost between one supplier and the other

Quality and reliability in products is not a priority and neither is the relationship (think Walmart)

Examples – Bargaining Power of Buyers

Ford Motor Company – In its early stages got a huge cash injection from the government to manufacture vehicles for the war.

Military Startups – the same is true for startups that focus on fraud i-e very powerful buyers.

Threat of Substitutes

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

Many early stage entrepreneurs (I am guilty too) are quick to say “We have no competition!”. Cute answer but wrong. There are always substitutes even when there are no direct competitors.

Substitute is something that serves a similar function as the main product. For example, coffee and tea – both have caffeine. Or videoconferencing is substitute for traveling.

Rivalry Among Existing Competitors

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

Any evidence of high rivalry among existing competitors usually comes in forms of price cuts, common sales and marketing campaigns, and relatively short product and service upgrades. Think of iPhone and Samsung, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, Apple iOS and Google android, Uber and Lyft. All of them are in the “new products in existing markets“.

A critical mistake scared rivals make is that being gauging mutually destructive activities. For example, competing on feature front or price cuts.

Factors to Consider when Making Strategic Decisions

Michael porter highlights that “It is especially important to avoid the common pitfall of mistaking certain visible attributes of an industry for its underlying structure”

For example;

Industry Growth Rate

People are quick to assume that fast-growing industries are always attractive. For example, fast-growing business of personal computers or smart phones have been among the least profitable industries. Why? Because suppliers have power and cost-cutting rivalry among pc manufacturers. Therefore, consider the unique play of the fiver forces in addition the industry growth rate.

Technology and Innovation

High pace of technological innovation alone does not make the industry attractive or unattractive either. In fact, low-technology industries with price-insensitive buyers, high switching costs, or high entry barriers arising from scale economies are often far more profitable than sexy industries of software and internet technologies.

Government

Complementary Products and Services – For example the car industry has gas stations and road side assistance that makes the use of the product attractive. The presence of compliments are not good or bad – but need to be analyzed to see their affect.

Game: Using Game Theory to Shape Strategy

Startup is a very high stake and a risky game. Yet, many entrepreneurs do not view strategy (this is the intangible part) of much importance. Just like in real life we tend to de-prioritize intangible things such as relationships or health only to realize in the long run that we were playing the wrong game.

However, there is some good news;

“Unlike war in sports, business is not about winning and losing. Nor it is about how well you play the game. Companies can succeed spectacularly without requiring others to fail. And they can fail miserably no matter how well they play if they make the mistake of playing the wrong game.”

The essence of business success lies in making sure you’re playing the right game.” – Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry Nalebuff

Value Net

Given that business is all about value creation and capturing it, Value net is a framework that represents all the players in the game and how they are connected. It asks the simple question of “Who are the players in your company’s value net?” and then prompts you to think about value creation via all of them. For examples, see coopetitions.

Who are the players in your value net?

Formulating Strategy

The start of founders must think into the foreseeable future to make predictions about how the game might unfold by analyzing all the players in the value net. In other words, reason forward then go backwards to the present in order to determine what key actions to do today to bring future into existence.

Many (including myself in the past) entrepreneurs come with the mentality that their success must come at the other competitor’s expense. Wrong.

“[No] one can success by themselves. The only way you can achieve something magnificent is by working with other people. There [are] lots of coopetitions.”

Conclusion and Next Steps

[button link=”#ov” color=”silver”] Back to Top[/button]

These strategic decision making tools should act as a compass for early stage startups. Luckily, for later stage startup strategy you won’t have to deeply reflect and question your fundamental strategy as much – hard (but smart) work pays off!

]]>https://jawwad.me/strategy-fundamentals-for-early-stage-technology-start-ups/feed/22161Entrepreneurial Selling – The Complete Guidehttps://jawwad.me/entrepreneurial-selling-complete-guide/
https://jawwad.me/entrepreneurial-selling-complete-guide/#commentsMon, 29 Feb 2016 19:25:09 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2028Introduction: This comprehensive blog post is a step-by-step playbook for launching (new and untested) products – whether it be a start-up co-founder or an existing company. It describes a philosophy of “entrepreneurial selling” and step-by-step process to put this philosophy into practice. Purpose: Ultimately this guide is trying to answer the question – how should entrepreneurs sell their way to success – the single most important activity for their survival? Remember, startup is a temporary organization built to search for the solution to a problem, and in the process find a repeatable, scalable, and profitable business model. The key activities of a startup is of experimentation – to learn and adapt before it’s too late. Inspiration: This guide is a result of four years of on the field experience with launching five validated and un-validated products. These included online communities (platform), phone trading and unlocking (passive income), and three SaaS products – Hirebench, eCarpool, and SharpScholar. Inevitably, many of the lessons were learned the hard way – first wrote the test and then learned the theory. Furthermore, it containts nuggets of advice from mentors and advisors I have had over the past four years. Notable sources include: Craig Wortmann, Mark Leslie, Charles […]

]]>Introduction: This comprehensive blog post is a step-by-step playbook for launching (new and untested) products – whether it be a start-up co-founder or an existing company.

It describes a philosophy of “entrepreneurial selling” and step-by-step process to put this philosophy into practice.

Purpose: Ultimately this guide is trying to answer the question – how should entrepreneurs sell their way to success – the single most important activity for their survival?

Remember, startup is a temporary organization built to search for the solution to a problem, and in the process find a repeatable, scalable, and profitable business model. The key activities of a startup is of experimentation – to learn and adapt before it’s too late.

Inspiration: This guide is a result of four years of on the field experience with launching five validated and un-validated products. These included online communities (platform), phone trading and unlocking (passive income), and three SaaS products – Hirebench, eCarpool, and SharpScholar.

Inevitably, many of the lessons were learned the hard way – first wrote the test and then learned the theory. Furthermore, it containts nuggets of advice from mentors and advisors I have had over the past four years.

Introduction to Entrepreneurial Selling – The make or break Deal

The most common mistake I see entrepreneurs make (and have myself been guilty of) is managing early sales of the startup. This is the critical “valley of death” gap given that customers are company’s best proof of concept, market test, and significant risk reducer.

Now, getting early customers is not enough – getting the right early customers and managing the whole process is what will take the startup (temporary organization) closer to product-market fit – where the focus shifts from experimentation to scaling the organization.

The good news for the entrepreneur is that if he can manage to get the company to the scaling stage, there are many external resources (books, VC firms, etc) to help the startup scale.

The bad news for the entrepreneur is that entrepreneurial selling will be LONELY. Hopefully this guide and I can make this journey a tiny bit easier for you.

Here are some fatal mistakes “sales” mistakes that startups make;

Mistake 1: The founders do not believe or want to be “sales people”

Mistake 2: The founders seek help from professional sales people

Mistake 3: The founders view and conduct selling and product development in isolation

Mistake 4: The founders follow “professional sales tips / books” which do not tailor to challenges unique to entrepreneurs

Mistake 5: The founders undervalue their passion and commitment as inputs into their sales process

Importance of Getting it Right

Entrepreneurs who fail to master the sales process (or make the above mistakes) put their startup ventures at fatal sustainability risk. This is because;

Financial Performance – depends on understanding the sales process

Human Validation – customers are the proof that there is a real business solving a real need

Poor Learning Process – improperly conducting the entrepreneurial sales damages the potential of collaboration between founders and often makes the team focus on the wrong priorities.

Entrepreneurial Selling vs Professionals Selling

Let’s start with the most critical mistake and confusion between entrepreneurs – difference between entrepreneurial and professional selling. Many of the books available online assume that a company has an established product, clear customer segment, proven ROI, and messaging. It is no surprise that these books had left me and bunch of other entrepreneurs frustrated.

Entrepreneurial selling is distinctly different from the sales team of a large company. In a large established company, the salesperson happily sits on top of a powerful structure of resources – supporting him along the way (See Figure 1). These include product managers, marketing gurus, customer service, and design team. All of these equip the salesperson with brochures, demos, and most importantly case studies and success stories. Better yet, the sales person’s role is further broken down into prospector, account executive etc (See Figure 2).

This is far from true for an entrepreneur. For him or her the situation is pretty much flipped on its head (Figure 3). She has no one to rely on to support her selling – from prospecting to closing. She is a salesperson, customer service, marketing, product visionary, and most importantly has the courage and discipline to learn from mistakes and customer rejections. On any given day, he or she is running back and forth to balance all of these requirements. This is the first fundamental challenge of entrepreneurial selling – balancing and juggling priorities while staying focused on bringing in business.

Entrepreneur as the Salesperson

With the differences in professional and entrepreneurial selling established, let’s squash some a common bias that entrepreneurs begin with.

Eliminating the Myth – Build a Better Mousetrap

Namely, “Sales and marketing will take care of itself if we build a better product” (Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson).

This myth alone is one of the leading contributors to the death of most businesses today. The truth is that no product or service sells itself and many people who built a “better mousetrap” died on the inventor’s shelf because a lessor product with better sales and marketing (understanding of customers) beat them to it.

Want to see it for yourself? Go to any hardware store and check out the mouse traps section, the most basic one is still the best seller. Think of Shamwow, it’s just a cleaning rug. Tommy Hilfiger just “sold” its way to success by advertising alongside CK, Ralph Lauren etc.

Bottom line: In the early stages of a startup nothing can be replaced as a substitute of entrepreneurial selling – not even a technological breakthrough or better product. If they could, almost all new inventions and better products would succeed yet they have the same failure rate as a startup.

Now, with the biases eliminated, let’s talk about what advantages does the entrepreneur truly have as the sales person.

Passion and Commitment – The Entrepreneur’s Advantage

Why does the founder have to be the first-sales person? Well, if professional or external sales people could get your company up and running then everyone with an idea would be a billionaire. KFC tried selling it a 100 times before he found the customer, uber, airbnb, and many other companies fall under the same category. What do they have in common?

Answer: Passion and Commitment

Note: Professional people are not compensated for dealing with hassles and Q&A. They are used to making proven sales as shown in Figure 2 above.

Passion gets the founder to believe in the product and she is unwilling to walk away from an objection. Furthermore, it is like their child they can defend for it instead of walking away from an adopted child (professional salesperson).

Furthermore, passion is infectious. Professional salesperson emphasize economic value proposition. But more than the economic value proposition, people buy from people. Entrepreneur can communication the future vision with a clarity and energy that can make the potential customer willing to take risk of doing business with a startup.

Commitment gets the founder to work on the host of issues that emerge. Initially, the entrepreneur needs customer input, use cases, psychological responses, and problem identification – all forms of critical feedback.

This critical feedback (coupled with passion and commitment) allows the entrepreneur to iterate and build the company – stage were many entrepreneurs get lost.

Entrepreneurial Selling Process

It is important to note that the “professional sales process” typically begins after marketing leaves off.

Assumptions made by professional organizations

Marketing Department defines the correct market

Generate Good Leads

Support the Sale with Clear Positioning and Strong Brand

Provides Human Resources (managers) to Manage the Process

However, for entrepreneurial sales process reaches back into marketing and all the way into customer service.

It demands much more of the entrepreneur’s personal factors (skills, patience, grit, & passion), is much unpredictable, and is driven by big key decisions.

The stages are – selecting the target, engaging the prospect, making the match, doing the deal.

Stage 1: Selecting the Target

Overview: Most entrepreneurs begin with assuming that the “whole world needs this!”

Challenge: Identify Niche and Low-Hanging Fruits / Early Adopters

Defining any market is about determining what problems, characteristics, buying habits, needs and budgets a group of customers really have in common.

The best way to get to your target is by;

State the Problem Being Solved

Select the Entire Possible Market of People (aka “whole world needs this!”)

Apply one of the following filters;

Filter – Industry Vertical

Filter – Size of Company

Filter – Emphasis on Particular Activities

Filter – Geography

Goal: Speed of contact, ability to use business cases, references, and stories to get into the door and have meaningful conversations

Criteria for Good Filters and Initial Target Market

Deliver real value quickly (time)? Urgency. Maximum pain point.

Gain access to multiple customers? Having a single customer is not sufficient. Engage a small group of initial customers to ensure that the offering is broadly applicable.

Connect to analogous industries? When making case that problem solved for customers in the first market is comparable and relevant to buyers in the next target segment is important.

Stage 2: Engaging the Prospect

Overview: Lead generation is easy for existing organization as they have a proven product to offer. However, for entrepreneurs the challenge requires the use of their passion and “people skills” to generate conversations with prospects.

Challenge: Entrepreneurs must get creative and try harder to initiate conversations – many times it may take as many as 5-10 attempts to get a response or notice. For established companies, they have internal sales teams dedicated to lead and meeting generation.

Critical Steps: Lead Generation and Qualification

Lead Generation – Process of Finding the names and contact information for individual buyers in the target market and reaching out to them

There are only two places that entrepreneurs go to generate leads (see figure below).

Hot Prospect – Personal Network, Introductions, Referrals

Cold Prospect – Cold Calls, Emails, Creative Reaching Out

Entrepreneur must reach out to both sources for systematic lead generation. Use hot prospects (people who know you) to get initial feedback, listen, and even put money where their mouth is. Always cross-validate this with cold prospects. After all, getting business from Uncle Tom (even if he fits target profile) is not a SALE (it’s a donation).

Before you start selling, you need to qualify the prospect so you sell to someone who is genuinely interested.

Qualification – lets the entrepreneur know if this individual buyer is a good fit for the company

Entrepreneurial selling is about assessing a prospect against the target filters and qualify as soon as possible, NOT fully engage every prospect out there. Why?

They require too much customization – burning precious resources

Some will grind on price – make you lose money

Budget – Not existent and may drag process endlessly

Entrepreneurs must learn to walk away from bad business – it sucks time and money. This takes a much disciplined approach – as entrepreneur is hungry for success.

Qualification does not end until the deal is closed. It’s like a ladder you climb. Food for thought: Would you fall off earlier where the fall is short or higher after you have invested time and resources making the fall harder?

Stage 3: Making the Match

Overview: Don’t get too pragmatic, selling is a fluid conversation. Not a monologue.

Don’t get into the pitch mode – sell features and benefits of the product or service – something they love to do. Therefore, listen (easier said than done) and get buyer to articulate needs, budget, timeframe and desired outcomes. Note that this is much more difficult than pitching.

Challenge: Lacking knowledge, expertise, and “being in their shoes”, well-testing offering, track record, the entrepreneur must spend a significant amount of time in this phase building credibility and overcoming the liability of newness. Make sure you do your homework before entering the conversation to become as knowledgeable about the prospect’s industry and business issues to add VALUE.

This is the heart of the selling process – where both parties agree that it’s worth having a conversation.

This conversation does not just bounce along the surface but dives deeper to determine whether or not this deal makes sense for both parties.

[table “4” not found /]

Entrepreneurs get so excited that they promise the moon without realizing their competitive advantage, resources, and sustainability.

Proposing – Taking determining fit and qualifying into the specifics of how an engagement would work between the parties

Key is to use customer’s own language, emphasize priorities, reviewing specific requirements to make customer feel heard and unique. Furthermore, a price that has already been discussed and agreed upon.

Most entrepreneurs rush to write fancy 10-page proposals with unnecessary complexity and jargon. (PS: I once received a proposal that had conditions for what would happen if the founders died.)

Stage 4: Doing the Deal

Overview: Entrepreneurs assume once they find a gap and the position their value proposition, out comes the contract and the wallet! Beware the greedy sale. The buyers need more convincing and the entrepreneur needs to assure that this is what they want and can do. Also, beware the entrepreneurial challenge stated below.

Challenge: Entrepreneur’s overconfidence and desire to win – can lead to contracts that small firm is challenged to deliver on, get into “company building” when they are still a start-up, redirect valuable time and money towards winning the wrong clients.

Critical Steps: Closing and Resetting

Closing – actually ask for the business

Rule of thumb it should be as easy and obvious as from moving from engaged to getting married. The answer should be hell YES!

That’s it. No “trial close”, “give it a try”, “take away close” or any other closing techniques that formal sales training programs have. Save these for later when your company has the luxury to do so.

If it is not a hell yes (marry me!) from both sides, go back and continue qualifying and understanding the customer (Stage 1-4).

Re-setting – expectations to ensure buyer and seller are on the same page

Once you have a “closed” deal, ensure that the start-up is not set out to over deliver, the customer is ideal and matches with a broad base of future customers.

The deal is favorable when the start-up can over deliver without the extra costs. Now, you can sit back and enjoy while you update financials and dream the money coming in.

The End Game – The Sales Learning Curve

Luckily, an entrepreneur’s job is not done after getting initial customers on board. You should not just ramp up sales operations. The company’s ability to scale depends on the entrepreneur’s ability to continuously improve the sales cycle, reduce cost of acquisition, creating a repeatable sales process, and recruiting the right early customers.

Before the company can sell the product efficiently, the entire organization needs to learn how customers will acquire and use it, a process known as the sales learning curve.

Start-ups or existing companies launching new products follow a sales learning curve that is similar to the manufacturing curve – it happens via give-and-take between the company and its customers. As customers adopt and use it, give feedback, the organization modifies both the offering and processes associated with making and selling it. Most Kickstarter campaigns do this.

Goal: Startup should organize itself so it can learn from customers and respond to them. They must view sales function as a learning process instead of “scaling” and bringing in customers.

Gaining knowledge in each of the above parts happens slowly – something that is hard for a “hungry” entrepreneur. It develops slowly as the company makes initial assumptions, which are modified as feedback comes in from early customers. The learning customers only accelerates once more and more customers resonate and give similar feedback – honing the product, messaging, and the sales effort. This cannot be all done by selling to a large customer base all at once as many problems are discovered sequentially – revealing themselves only after some preceding issue has been discovered and addressed.

How Steep – The Sales Learning Curve

Just like the manufacturing learning curve where by tracking cost per unit – the more the manufacturing learns about the process the more efficient it becomes. Likewise, the progress along the sales learning curve is measure in an analogous way: the more a company learns about its product, market, and sales, the more efficient it becomes at selling, and the higher the sales yield.

Sales Yield – is the average annual sales revenue per full-time (fully trained and effective) sales representative. Typically it starts out slow, accelerates for a while, and them flattens out as the product matures, in a class S-Shape curve.

The steepness of the curve depends on the industry, sales cycle’s length etc. For many new product launches, the sales yield never reaches expected levels or break-even point resulting in cash shortfalls and premature death for promising products.

Setting expectations appropriately, therefore, can make the difference between pioneering a new market and aborting it too soon.

Sales Learning Curve – Launch Phases

The go to market strategy for a new product should unfold in three parts – initiation, transition, and execution phase.

The staffing (skills) and financial resources need in the first stage, before the product is profitable, are very different from those need in the later stages when the product is being refined and different again from those need after most issues have been resolved and sales have reached a sustainable, predictable level.

The Initiation Phase

Focus: Learning from the Sales Team and Collaboration

Staffing: Renaissance Representatives (High Communication Skills) must facilitate communicating with many parts of the organization, a tolerance of ambiguity, deep interest in product, and a talent for bring customers together for the team. 3-4 max sales people (must be key hires and NOT bad ones)

The Transition Phase

Start Trigger: Sales Yield = Expense per Sales rep

End Trigger: Sales Yield = 2 x Expense per Sales rep

Focus: Develop repeatable sales model, refining market positioning, and adding sales capacity at a rate commensurate with the rise in the slope of the curve:

Staffing: Enlightened Reps – comfortable contribution to still-evolving sales model but do not need to have analytical and communication skills of the renaissance reps.

The Execution Phase

Staffing: Traditional Salespeople – Coin Operated Reps who require nothing more than a territory, a sales plan, a price book, and marketing materials to bring in orders

]]>https://jawwad.me/entrepreneurial-selling-complete-guide/feed/2202830 EdTech Startup Lessons Learnedhttps://jawwad.me/startup-lessons-learned-in-edtech/
https://jawwad.me/startup-lessons-learned-in-edtech/#commentsThu, 25 Feb 2016 19:05:38 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1993Update: Sharpscholar.com is still a small-business in operation. We hope to work towards a niche product-market fit. As a co-founder of an edtech startup, SharpScholar, we have learned important edtech business lessons while building the startup over the last two years. Along the way we got to be on Dragons’ Den (aka SharkTank of Canada), interview at Imagine-K12, accepted into the DMZ incubator, won awards, and learned from people at Khan Academy, GoogleX and others. However, along the way we also made significant mistakes – from which we tried to learn. This post articulates the learnings from our experiences from operating in the edtech startup space. Furthermore, I have researched and added links to other founders and edtech companies that have learned similar lessons. Lesson #1: Have a direct relationship with your customer Problem: Stakeholders – students, teachers, administration, and the government – are very interdependent for making decisions related to students. A few examples of this interdependence are: Teachers coordinate with colleagues in their department to plan the syllabus for their course. Thus, if you are a business that sells course content (textbook, paid content, education apps etc), you will find yourself trying to convince all of them to purchase your content. Policies dictate how […]

Update: Sharpscholar.com is still a small-business in operation. We hope to work towards a niche product-market fit.

As a co-founder of an edtech startup, SharpScholar, we have learned important edtech business lessons while building the startup over the last two years. Along the way we got to be on Dragons’ Den (aka SharkTank of Canada), interview at Imagine-K12, accepted into the DMZ incubator, won awards, and learned from people at Khan Academy, GoogleX and others.

However, along the way we also made significant mistakes – from which we tried to learn.

This post articulates the learnings from our experiences from operating in the edtech startup space. Furthermore, I have researched and added links to other founders and edtech companies that have learned similar lessons.

Lesson #1: Have a direct relationship with your customer

Problem: Stakeholders – students, teachers, administration, and the government – are very interdependent for making decisions related to students.

A few examples of this interdependence are:

Teachers coordinate with colleagues in their department to plan the syllabus for their course. Thus, if you are a business that sells course content (textbook, paid content, education apps etc), you will find yourself trying to convince all of them to purchase your content.

Policies dictate how much course-related fees can be charged to students. In Canada’s higher-education, the ministry sets a maximum for what can be charged to students. Thus, if you are a business (like SharpScholar or TopHat) that charge students for the cost, you will find yourself either discouraged or limited by such policies.

Our Situation: At SharpScholar we created a highly interdependent product – the purchase of the product depended on approval from students and admin which effectively complicated our relationship with the teacher. This resulted in us having different messaging for students, teachers, and admin as well as lack of focus as to who we are tailoring to.

Solution: For a startup, having a direct relationship with your target customer (teacher, student, or admin) without interdependence from another stakeholder is important for the startup’s success. It gives you

Thus, try to minimize or eliminate layers of approval and interdependence of your edtech product.

Here are some case studies of edtech companies that can expand upon this lesson:

Note: I still believe TopHat is struggling with Lesson #1 & 2 – just like us.

Lesson #2: Don’t Confuse Your Customers, Consumers, and Users

Even if you have a direct relationship with your “customer”, you may still be in the grey area. Customer, by definition, is someone who pays for the product. Consumer, by definition, is someone who uses the product. Users, by definition, can be a combination of both or an external party that participates in the process.

The toy industry is known to have understood its customer and consumer. They advertise their product to the kinds (consumer) particularly during their favorite cartoons or TV shows. These kids then bug their parents (customers) who then go out and purchase these products for their kids.

The same is true for the candy industry. Even wonder why the candies are stacked from the floor-up besides the payment counter? So your kids (or future kids) can easily grab them!

However, this relationship is not crystal clear in the educational industry. Given the complications of getting money, there are all kinds of startup models – charge students (TopHat & Us), Free for Students and Teachers (way too many to list), and Not-for-profit etc. Other than not-for-profit ventures, I believe the rest (including us) don’t have a viable business model.

Lesson Learned: Beware the complications of scaling a business model that makes the consumer (students) pay while the customer (teacher) enjoys it for free.

Lesson #3: Empathy Gap between Teachers & Entrepreneurs

Many EdTech companies today have a very difficult relationship with their customers – teacher, student, or the admin.

Teachers view their job as empathetic – not companies or entrepreneurs.

If you are trying to get them to adopt a classroom app, they are thinking about the kids who don’t have a phone, first testing it out, or extra work for the students. They want to think on it and make decisions slowly.

Whereas entrepreneurs (despite having empathy or care for education) want to scale fast – meet and exceed sales metrics. This gap is often too much to bear and results in startup failure.

Closing the gap is going to take direct communication with teachers and ensuring they understand the constraints (time and hypothesis testing) of a startup.

Lesson Learned: EdTech entrepreneurs want to learn fast, test, experiment on students / teachers / admin whereas teachers are thinking the impact of another tools that the students will have to learn, will this work, will another SaaS tool help my students?

Lesson #4: Teachers Want to be Thought Leaders – Not Doers

Talking about tech and being on the Twitter make teachers look good to administrators and to the public. However, much like politicians, they don’t plan or have the capacity to implement the changes they talk about.*

* This is where we need to be aware of their “empathy gap” (Lesson #3). The change does eventually come but not at a rate where EdTech entrepreneurs can bank on it.

Lesson #5: Teachers Don’t See Learning and Performance in terms of Data

Some teachers simply don’t see learning and performance in terms of “data.” There is still debate regarding the validity of using a numeric grading system to measure learning.

This explains the slow adoption of analytical tools for in-class instruction (partially us).

Lesson #6 – Teachers are influenced to be FREE Consumers

Would you pay for using social media – twitter, facebook, or snapchat? No.

That is the same psychology teachers’ have been primed to think (unfortunately) by the flood of desperate edtech companies. Furthermore, many big guys (Google, GitHub, Microsoft) have freebies or highly discounted products for the teachers.

They do believe that there is such a thing as free lunch for being in education space.

Lesson #7: Flaws in early adopters of “customers” in Edtech*

Unlike other industries, edtech early adopters should be chosen carefully. Many of them of conflicting agenda – particularly the ones with educational research. They see the tools as an icing on the cake for their research or case study and create noise for the co-founders.

Others are simply not educated enough to know all solutions out there hence they purchase yours (which is a risky sale). The remaining say yes to the same because it is the easiest thing to do instead of going out and searching for a better solution (yes they should even if that means you lose business).

We at SharpScholar struggled to wash ourselves clean of such customers.

Lesson #8: Entrepreneurs want to Get to “execution” fast without questioning or “taking the harder (slower) route”

It’s easier to build novel technology than to deeply engage with students and teachers to understand their fundamental needs. Better yet, try to fight the system in aligning the interests of admin, teachers, and students.

Many edtech business are built over a decade even if they run only a few million dollar in revenue – which is very few entrepreneur’s cup of coffee.

Lesson #10: A Great Product that Requires More Work Will Not Get Used

It does not matter how good your product is (or how much it improves learning) but if it requires more work to be put from the users’ side – good luck because no one wants to do more work.

Lesson #11: Summary: How to Best Serve Teachers (Caution)

Teachers are one of the main drivers of educational process and if your edtech startup wants to deal with them successfully, keep the following in mind;

Student Adoption – They are the gatekeepers for student adoption. Despite recommendations from the admin, it is them who decide which products to use. However, don’t confuse them to be your customers (Lesson #1-2).

Each Teacher is Unique – CAUTION: Teachers will give you input into building your product, but only if you respect their opinion and the fact that all students, teachers, and schools are different.

I am not convinced that the above factors provide enough ROI to serve and solve their problems. I would take these more as cautions.

Lesson #12: Understand the Ins-and-Outs of Educational Industry to Survive

Education is unlike any other industry because you are dealing with molding the minds of children, future thinkers and contributors to society.

To make it more complicated, it is a public good. So government, parents (taxes), teachers, and students play a political role in it.

Just as education is a long-term pursuit, edtech entrepreneurs should also view the companies they are building as a long-term project.

Lesson #13: Schools are Buying Ed-Tech Tools, but then failing to Use Them

Given the fad and schools wanting to “advertise” that they are innovative, “spend” (not invest) in edtech projects which rarely reach adoption or near success criteria.

Over the two years, I have observed million dollar projects at my school and others that happened at different universities in Canada and US – needless to say the rate of change and the success criteria are depressing.

Lesson #14: Summary: Reasons Why You Should Stay in EdTech

Despite the warnings above, the experience has also taught me what kind of entrepreneurs at fixated on making things work despite all the above mess.

Passion, Determination, and Patience – I repeat – passion, determination, and patience. You must have a burning passion to crack the educational market, and the determination to commit a decade or more of your life (which maybe all you got) to your startup.

Now you may ask that passion, determination and patience are prerequisites for any startup, so what is different in edtech? Well, education market, has a unique set of challenges that make it a difficult environment for growing a successful company. Some of them include;

Political Pressures – Mirco and macro pressures that shape the budget decisions and how that puts big companies (not startups) at advantage.

Lack of Resources for Large-Scale Implementation – Finding yourself stuck without having to become a full-suite solution (Sorry. Google, Microsoft, Apple, and LMSs will eat you alive if you do this).

Noise and Competition in the Ed-Tech Space – You product by default is “not needed” given how many products have ruined the reputation for technology products.

Change Management – You are in the business of change people and way of doing things that have been rooted in civilization for centuries.

These obstacles mean it can take 3+ years to get the kind of “hockey-stick” growth that sometimes happens on the consumer Internet. On the flip side, once you build a strong relationship with your customers in this market, you can have slow but sticky growth.

Lesson # 15: No Teachers, Students, or Admins Alike – Even Remotely

Proceed with caution when you are trying to build your ideal customer profile – double check against other schools and teachers if this is something they resonate on.

Lesson #16: There is an EdTech Bubble so Don’t Read TechCrunch

There are too many edtech apps – many of them VC backed with little to no revenue (or even signs of it).

There is a bubble. It’s no longer potential, it’s real. Those flatly saying “yes” to the bubble question on stage included Weld North CEO Jonathan Grayer (buyer of two edtech companies in one day this month) and Senior Managing Director Chris Hoehn-Saric of Sterling Partners.

Lesson #17: Educational Technology is Not New – Its Old

Just because iPads in classrooms and Facebook-like software interfaces are the rage doesn’t mean education technology hardware and software didn’t exist pre-2010. If you really want to improve education, do a little homework of your own. Not just back to the days of Oregon Trail, SMART interactive white boards and Renaissance Learning (founded in 1984?)

If your edtech idea is truly transformational, even if there’s a desperate need for it, even if it works as advertised, even if it’s free-free-free, prepare to be pushed on to the curb. As Hoehn-Saric summed up, “When you’re going in to change the system, there’s always hostility – particularly in edtech”

“I wouldn’t want to back a business that’s selling to public schools or characterized by public financing, unions or government-run institutions. Those institutions are incredibly hostile to change,” said Andreessen Horowitz.

For instance, a founder might think “I used to forget to my books before class so why don’t I develop a cool app that automatically texts students right before a class to bring their books?” (I won’t be surprised if this exists).

Without knowing the research on how students learn and develop as well as the literature on how technology affects student outcomes, the chances of your startup magically creating student success are almost none. As Om Malik put it for failed edtech venture, Kno – “that startup is ultimately trying to solve a problem that it wanted to solve for itself, not for students and publishers.”

Lesson #20: Why Schools Don’t Want to Deal with EdTech / Startups

Financial Constraints – Money for a replacement is tied up in an annual budgeting process. IT and technology support roles–already understaffed–need to juggle this emergency alongside their existing responsibilities.

Teachers and administrators simply do not have extra hours during the school year for technology training.

Students need to start over with new materials and a new product to learn.

Learn about the culture of academia and help academia learn about the culture of startups. This will help you understand institutional resistance to new technologies in education as well as help you understand how to best approach your new academic partners.

Lesson #21: Lack of Data and Effectiveness for EdTech Startups

Many companies are starting to fall victim to this – lumosity, Duolingo, etc. It is like trying to measure your brain power without a meter?

Higher education faculty and administrators are already distrustful of startups because there is inherent skepticism about for-profit ventures. Ed-Tech companies have little to no data showing that their product does what they say it does. Not a surprise that in their Unleashing thePotential of Educational Technology report the U.S.’s Council of Economic Advisers politely wrote, “It is difficult for producers of these technologies to demonstrate the effectiveness of their products.”

Lesson #22: Education Is a Cost Problem for Consumers not a Quality

Most entrepreneurs in education build the wrong type of business, because entrepreneurs think of education as a quality problem. If I improve learning outcomes or experience, I will reach the land of riches.The average person thinks of it as a cost problem (paying taxes for school, going to college, taking loans, free education etc).

People who do look at it as a quality problem send their kids to private schools. The average citizen is satisfied with public schools – after all how many parents do you see protesting to improve educational standards? Few or none. They are all busy with work.

Lesson #23: The Growth Curve of EdTech does not Equal Internet Companies

Building an edtech startup does not follow an Internet company’s growth curve. Do it because you want to fix problems in education for the next 20 years. See lessons #13, #8 and #3.

Lesson #24: The Industry is Flooded with “Nice to Have” instead of “Must Have”

Self-explanatory given the rapidly increasing number of edtech startups digging their own graves. See Lesson #24 below.

Lesson #25: Summary: Examples of 5 Failed EdTech Startup Companies

Here’s a rundown of five education startups that didn’t survive (source):

This startup that offered interactive e-textbooks missed going under completely by a nose. In the end, Intel acquired Kno for $15 million —pennies on the dollar, given that the startup raised almost $73.4 million in venture capital and debt. Kno began as Kakai Inc. and lasted four years, during which its tablet flopped as Apple took over the market and its shift in focus to an app-based textbook platform failed to gain traction. The startup was acquired mostly for its intellectual property and employees.

Knack billed itself as “a different kind of online gradebook built on the truth that teachers are short on time and support.” Unfortunately, Knack also found itself short on time and support. It shut down in 2011. According to a blog post by its founder, Knack shut down because it “had a very low number of users for a very long time.” Knack head Jarrod Drysdale wrote that he learned a lot about teachers and education, “including the truth that Knack is not a solution people want.”

This teacher lesson plan and collaboration site failed because, according to its founder, it was treated like a side project and never got the attention or traction it needed. Still, AJ Juliani, writes in a thoughtful post-mortem blog piece that he might have been onto something: “Three months after shutting down … two other companies received multi-million dollar rounds with painstakingly similar ideas. What was worse is how much better they were at executing and shipping than our team was.” Juliani is now the founder and an editor at educationismylife.com.

The online tutoring marketplace got respectable venture capital funding, but in the end it didn’t work out. One problem, according to Pando Daily, was that once the tutor and student found each other, there wasn’t much to stop the two from cutting Tutorspree out of the transaction and depriving the company of its cut (a healthy 50% when the company started out). A final blog post highlights successes the company had but notes that its founders could not “make it the company we wanted.”

This Pearson-backed startup aimed to help students become better prepared for college and at one point claimed 100,000 users. At launch, a Mashable article billed it the “Zynga for learning.” Alleyoop planned to offer online learning exercise and get users to pay for extra exercises using virtual currency — online currency that was, of course, purchased with cold hard cash— not unlike the way Zynga’s Facebook games charge for upgrades.

*Note: They are not really “EdTech” startups they are just simple technology solutions to serve a need. Remind101 is essentially whatsapp for students and teachers. This raises an interesting debate – are we overcomplicating “EdTech” with things like adaptive learning etc?

Now, let’s observe some of the startups (still searching for sustainable business models) that are showing signs of adoption (not profitability).

Edmodo – The lesson plan and homework sharing site has 32 million users.

Remind101 – a service that helps teachers send text messages to students and parents (but doesn’t allow minors to reply to their teachers), has 10 million teachers.

StudyBlue – which helps students quiz themselves on class material by making flash cards that they can access from their phones, has 5 million.

What do these services have in common? They all start out free, go straight to the user AND..

And they are all relatively simple technology (with little to do with EdTech).

Even some of the thought leaders in edtech think likewise – “I think it’s fair to say that there’s a whole lot of incremental innovation going on, and not all that much radical stuff,” said Geoff Ralston, who runs Imagine K12.

Lesson #27: Barely Anyone is Making Money in EdTech

Even some edtech companies that have went IPO have yet to turn a profit – e.g 2U and Instructure.

2U’s Income Statement in Millions USD

See Lesson #25 for startups (still searching for sustainable business models) that are showing signs of adoption (not profitability).

Lesson #28: There are Four Types of Business Models in the EdTech Field

If the whole field is examined, almost all companies can be categorized under the following four buckets.

]]>https://jawwad.me/startup-lessons-learned-in-edtech/feed/111993Personal Experimentshttps://jawwad.me/personal-experiments/
https://jawwad.me/personal-experiments/#commentsMon, 22 Feb 2016 18:32:22 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1908Personal Experiments are 30+ day challenges to adopt new habits. These experiments are a result of self-reflection through journaling and are an indispensable part of the forever learning principles. Many of the articles and projects on this blog are a result of these experiments. Why these experiments? I quickly realized that there is no shortage of personal development tips, but is a shortage in its implementation (that is a dirty secret as to why personal development business flourishes). Thus, I decided to focus on key habits that would have the most impact of my various areas of life. Areas of Life to Experiment With I split up my experiments in these categories of life; relationships, career and work, finances, health, contribution, spirituality, living environment and planning my life. However, keep in mind that many of these experiments impact more than just one area of your life. To better understand various areas of life please refer to the life catergories post or my 2016’s reflection in which I tried to rank myself in each of these categories. Overview of Experiments Done to Date Health and Wellbeing Gym – Strength Training 3 Times a Week Diet – No Pop or Sugary Drinks Mental Health – Practice […]

Why these experiments? I quickly realized that there is no shortage of personal development tips, but is a shortage in its implementation (that is a dirty secret as to why personal development business flourishes). Thus, I decided to focus on key habits that would have the most impact of my various areas of life.

Areas of Life to Experiment With

I split up my experiments in these categories of life; relationships, career and work, finances, health, contribution, spirituality, living environment and planning my life. However, keep in mind that many of these experiments impact more than just one area of your life.

Review: In the beginning it was difficult as much of small talk with others is complaining – “I am tired. It’s been a bad day. I hate commuting or my job etc.”. Overtime, I got better and began to surround myself with people who complain less.

Experiment #2 – Track Sleep and Optimize Accordingly

Inspiration: I have had sleeping issues – mostly because of my back pain. Due to poor quality sleep, I knew I was wasting about 1-2 hours a night which accumulate to 30 days/ a year!

Status: Poor / Need Help

Review: I have been very inconsistent with my sleep quality, time, and patterns. I have tried a whole host of solutions – which I have failed to fully implement. This will be an experiment in which I will continue to improve.

Experiment #3 – Recording Dreams in a Dream Journal

Inspiration: I remember waking up many mornings still partially in the halo of my dreams. As they kept happening, I became interested in lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is remembering and trying to control your dreams during your sleep.

Status: Practicing Everyday (Inconsistently)

Review: I began my keeping a dream journal beside my bed and now have three books full – from 2013-today. My memory recall for the dreams has gotten better, however, I am still trying to be more consistent.

Experiment #4 – Keep a Daily Journal

Inspiration: In 2012, I noticed that all important / busy people had a journal to get things done. I was not important, I decided to get one regardless so I can be like them.

Status: Practicing Everyday

Review: This experiment has been the most influential in all other areas of my life – learning, management etc. Despite journaling for almost 5 years, I still am continuously improving how I journal learnings, goals, and self-reflections.

Experiment #5 – Live and Die by Your Calendar

Inspiration: After I started practicing GTD methodology for “stress-free productivity”, I realized that I still was not able to execute on it somehow. I had a to-do list for “today”, “tomorrow” or “someday” etc. However, I noticed that things that were in my calendar (meetings, appointments, calls etc) always got done.

Status: Practicing Everyday

Review: It does get a bit cumbersome and counter-productive to enter everything into your calendar. Early on I have made the mistake of stacking all activities side-by-side, however, I am getting better at making schedules that optimize my productivity, energy levels, and will power.

Experiment #6 – Turn off Cell Phone Notifications

Inspiration: On my quest to improve my focus, the GTD methodology helped me realized that my cell-phone was one of the key factors in my distraction. By default, our brain is expecting a reply for every text message we send or notification we get.

Status: Practicing Everyday (Inconsistently)

Review: Initially it was very hard to do due to the “fear of missing out“. I found myself checking social medial even when the notifications were off. I was surprised to learn how much of an “empty gap” it filled in my personal life. I have gotten better with time and my good friends understand as well.

Experiment #7 – Five Minute Journal for Daily Dose of Mindfulness

Inspiration: Being an entrepreneur, I go through roller-coaster rides of emotions with some mornings super exciting while others a bit blue. GTD got me to empty my mind, however, I needed something to provide mindfulness.

Status: Practicing Everyday

Review: This practice has made me realize how we take many things for granted. Being a person who rarely appreciates past efforts, this gets me to be more positive and confident about the future.

Experiment #8 – Eliminate Reading News and Info without Purpose

Inspiration: The GTD methodology made me realize that I wasting my mental bandwidth on soaking in information that was not healthy nor needed.

Status: Practising Everyday

Review: Yes, I am not in touch with many real-world events happening all around – US elections, middle east etc. Over the years I have learned that they did not matter enough for me to worry about. I will focus on things that I can change and give it my un-divided attention.

Experiment #9 – No Pop or Sugary Drinks

Inspiration: I worked at a fast-food place where we had unlimited free pops for employees. I recall chugging down more than 2L a day – iced tea, 7up, pepsi, coke, etc. Even after quitting that job, I purchased 2L bottles twice a week.

Status: Practicing Everyday

Review: This was one of the hardest habits to defeat. I slowly downgraded to iced tea and then juices. It took me almost 2 years to fully eliminate sugary drinks. The energy levels and quality sleep has been work the sacrifice.

Experiment #11 – Strength Training 3 Times a Week

Inspiration: My cricket coach in high-school called me a coat-hanger and I have been a very skinny kid. Don’t worry, I don’t have any hard feelings. I wanted to look and feel good – boosting my confidence and energy levels.

Status: Practicing Everyday (Inconsistent)

Review: I have been going to the gym for 4+ years. My progress has been slow due to poor dieting and inconsistencies. Regardless, I have been able to triple my strength over the years and gained muscle mass.

Experiment #12 – Cold Shower First Thing in the Morning

Inspiration: Anthony Robbins’s daily routine.

Status: Failed. Replaced with 5 Minute Journal.

Review: It just was not for me. It was draining my will power just anticipating the torture of the cold shower.

Experiment #13 – Keep a Hero Journal for Reference

Inspiration: I have a deep interest in studying people who have been successful in taking their ideas and making them a reality. I don’t only study their beliefs but physiology, mental syntax, and their shortcomings.

Status: Practicing Everyday

Review: This practice has been more rewarding than reading their autobiographies or what the media highlights about them. I am not only able to study their successes, but also failures and learn from them. For example, balancing health and family in your pursuit of a certain goal.

Experiment #14 – Learn and Control Your Body Language

Inspiration: I began noticing a clear pattern between my body language and the mood / emotion I felt. Working in high-pressure environment of an entrepreneur, I wanted to optimize my body language to support my efforts.

Status: Early Stages

Review: Body language has to align with mental beliefs – you can’t really fake one or the other. I am getting better at recognizing when both – verbal and body language – are on a slippery slope so I can make the changes I want.

Experiment #15 – Setting Outcome Related Goals

Inspiration: There came a point where I was questioning the priorities of many of the things I was doing in my startup. Therefore, I wanted to take an approach that focused on “outcomes” rather than just tasks which are usually disguised as busy work.

]]>https://jawwad.me/personal-experiments/feed/391908What a Lonely Birthday Taught Mehttps://jawwad.me/lonely-birthday/
https://jawwad.me/lonely-birthday/#commentsTue, 09 Feb 2016 17:27:53 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1891February 9th was my birthday and I spent it alone by myself. I am a bit of an introvert and my birthday happens during exam time so I have gotten used to spending it by myself while my friends crammed for exams. But something interesting happened the first time I had to spend it alone. Unlike the previous birthday in which I was consumed by the “celebration” of it – text messages, facebook, phone calls, and hanging out with friends; this time I felt revealed and relaxed. I did not have to conform and “celebrate” my birthday. Do you have to celebrate your birthday with a crowd? Yes, I wasn’t celebrating my birthday the way society expects – have a party, take pictures and post on social media, hang out with friends etc. But why did I have a strong resentment towards being alone on my birthday? Why did I feel so insecure about not being wanted? Only because I was not celebrating the birthdays with friends does not mean I was a looser or lesser than others celebrating birthdays. How would I celebrate my birthday alone if not tied with societal expectations of celebrating birthdays? Those questions became more […]

I am a bit of an introvert and my birthday happens during exam time so I have gotten used to spending it by myself while my friends crammed for exams.

But something interesting happened the first time I had to spend it alone. Unlike the previous birthday in which I was consumed by the “celebration” of it – text messages, facebook, phone calls, and hanging out with friends; this time I felt revealed and relaxed. I did not have to conform and “celebrate” my birthday.

How I felt on my birthday – a lonely birthday.

Do you have to celebrate your birthday with a crowd?

Yes, I wasn’t celebrating my birthday the way society expects – have a party, take pictures and post on social media, hang out with friends etc.

But why did I have a strong resentment towards being alone on my birthday? Why did I feel so insecure about not being wanted?

Only because I was not celebrating the birthdays with friends does not mean I was a looser or lesser than others celebrating birthdays.

How would I celebrate my birthday alone if not tied with societal expectations of celebrating birthdays?

Those questions became more fascinating to me than trying to celebrate my birthday.

1. Value personal improvement more than “celebrating” on birthdays

What is the point of mindless celebration of birthdays?

Birthdays are bitter sweat. One one side you are celebrating getting older but on the other side you have one less year to live.

Thus, the best use of your finite birthdays is to invest in yourself via personal improvement. Yes, you can have a party and hang out with friends too. Just make sure to balance both – personal improvement and celebration.

2. Ignore societal norms of a good birthday

The goal of your birthday should not be to “follow the herd” but rather to make the most of the birthday for YOU. Here are some examples of people making the most of their birthdays for themselves;

Monks spend their birthdays in isolation and peace

Terminally ill patients like to spend it with their closest loved ones

Students spend their birthdays studying for exams or completing assignments

A low-income father or mother will spend it earning to support their house and kids

A homeless person or beggar may spend the birthday trying to just get enough food and water

If you are reading this, the chances are that you are in a different spot than the people above. Be thankful and re-visit your definition of a “good birthday”.

3. Embrace being outside your comfort zone

If I was not forced to spend my birthday alone, I may not have ever developed the habit of self-reflection on my birthdays.

It was being outside my comfort zone that allowed me to experience something new. Otherwise, I may still being going through my finite birthdays with shallow instead of deep and meaningful celebrations.

]]>https://jawwad.me/lonely-birthday/feed/121891Hidden Cancer in Mediocre SaaS Start-upshttps://jawwad.me/hidden-cancer-mediocre-saas-start-ups/
https://jawwad.me/hidden-cancer-mediocre-saas-start-ups/#respondMon, 08 Feb 2016 21:45:25 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1877Tl;dr; I built a mediocre SaaS startup, SharpScholar. Running a mediocre startup is like cancer: slowly attacking each part of your company – team, vision, etc until it becomes a zombie. You are constantly fighting the disease instead of building the company. The solution? Extract learnings and restart. *(See Caveats) I have been taking stabs at creating companies for about 4 years now. The most committed project has been SharpScholar – consuming 50% of the journey. If you are building a SaaS venture, you would want to ensure you don’t become a “mediocre SaaS” as it will slowly kill all that you made – culture, team, momentum etc. That is precisely what happened when we created, SharpScholar. What is a “Mediocre SaaS Startup”? SharpScholar operated for 2 years and had little to show for its progress quantitatively – only $100K in recurring sales. No consistent growth rate, could not raise Seed/VC capital, lack of product-market fit – all emerging from fundamental business issues. That is the definition of a “mediocre SaaS startup”. (See Caveats) Most start-ups that fall in this category are ticking time bombs disguised as modest success. Why? Because; Businesses like evolution are in the game of survival of the […]

Tl;dr; I built a mediocre SaaS startup, SharpScholar. Running a mediocre startup is like cancer: slowly attacking each part of your company – team, vision, etc until it becomes a zombie. You are constantly fighting the disease instead of building the company. The solution? Extract learnings and restart. *(See Caveats)

I have been taking stabs at creating companies for about 4 years now. The most committed project has been SharpScholar – consuming 50% of the journey. If you are building a SaaS venture, you would want to ensure you don’t become a “mediocre SaaS” as it will slowly kill all that you made – culture, team, momentum etc.

That is precisely what happened when we created, SharpScholar.

What is a “Mediocre SaaS Startup”?

SharpScholar operated for 2 years and had little to show for its progress quantitatively – only $100K in recurring sales. No consistent growth rate, could not raise Seed/VC capital, lack of product-market fit – all emerging from fundamental business issues. That is the definition of a “mediocre SaaS startup”. (See Caveats)

Most start-ups that fall in this category are ticking time bombs disguised as modest success. Why? Because;

Businesses like evolution are in the game of survival of the fittest and if your baby is deformed it will not survive.

Bottom Line: No Growth in Users = No point of existence.

Cancer That Kills Mediocre SaaS Startups

Fortunately and unfortunately, I have come to experience that there are significant downsides of running such a venture – ones that slowly take the toll on the company.

The problem is going too long without a treatment for the cancer that you have – whether it be capital, pivot, or restart. (*See Caveats) You and the team get exhausted by just putting out fires in all sides of your startup;

Operational Side – The Day-to-Day Stuff

Endless Labor – You have too many leads in sales funnel to follow-up with and don’t have money to hire a team to handle such admin work. Overtime, it keeps increasing.

Working “in” the Business – You are out there selling – a must do when you start. However, terrible after 24 months. You are caught up in busy work … who will make the critical decisions for the venture?

Doing Bare-Minimum: Many times in business it’s going that extra mile that makes all the difference. But when you are mediocre, you do bare minimum to keep customers happy – product development, customer support, sales etc and that is not a winning strategy.

Business Side – What Makes It Grow

Competitive Advantage – You can’t develop one as you can’t attract resources (capital, business innovation, human resources etc.) Even if you (think you) have one – which we did – it becomes absolute overtime as you are not sustaining it.

Lack of Purpose/Mission/Vision – If there is no central compelling message (i-e What, Why, How) the team can hold onto, then it eventually falls apart. Imagine being in a relationship without it, it won’t last long.

Team Falls Apart – Your team is like a wolf pack with different roles to support each other. A wolf-pack in which the hunter is not hunting, watcher is not watching, and leader is not leading will be led astray. Likewise, your technology lead will pack up his tools as they were catching dust. Sales person will not go that extra mile to close a deal because he does not believe in what he is selling. The business development lead will be do consumed with putting out the fires in various parts of the business.

Psychological Side – The Inner-Strength

Thinking Small – Worst of all: you start to think small – you begin running a hobby grandpa-business. You are so caught up with busy work and with lack of dollar bills you can’t afford to spend an extra nickel and as the years roll on … you abandon the big vision and your psyche has been taken over by “begging everyday”.

Zombie Business – Even worse – if you fall in these category – there is a high chance that you are a zombie business. Literally. You don’t have a soul, vision, you will eat any customer (even the bad ones), identity, sense of direction.

Identity Crisis – This happens for both – the founder and the company. Founder and the startup are married and the divorce hurts. Do you take the blame or blame the startup? But, venture was your creation so is it not all your fault? Learn to separate your identity and dependence for self-actualization from your startup.

Zombie Businesses do not know where they are going…

R.I.P of Mediocre SaaS Startup

The cancer slowly creeps in on the operational, business, and psychological parts of the startup – and even on the founders. The damage caused by the cancer eventually allows competition to kill your company or make it commit suicide. (note: not YOU. Your company or the team).

Lessons Learned

Tl;dr: I built a mediocre SaaS startup, SharpScholar. Running a mediocre startup is like cancer slowly attacking each part of your company – team and vision etc until it becomes a zombie. You are constantly fighting the disease instead of building the company. The solution? Extract learnings and restart.

Entrepreneurship:

Survival – Businesses like evolution are in the game of the survival of the fittest. If you have a mediocre business, it will eventually be wiped out. Weaker get wiped out first.

Survival – The only way to mitigate yourself against the above is to focus on growth.

Financing – Bootstrap only if growth is self-sustainable otherwise you are giving aspiring to a dying patient.

Entrepreneurial Gut – Seize the opportunity to learn from creating a mediocre company and go back to drawing board to do it right.

Communication / Teamwork: Clarity of mission, vision, and purpose (who, what, how) are key for a high-performing team to function – just like a wolf-pack.

*Caveats – There are far too many to be listed here. Best way to summarize in one-sentence is that I would not have it any other way. My philosophy in life is to learn from it and try again – as there is no permanent failure.

]]>https://jawwad.me/hidden-cancer-mediocre-saas-start-ups/feed/01877In startups, It is All Your Fault.https://jawwad.me/all-your-fault-mentality-in-startups/
https://jawwad.me/all-your-fault-mentality-in-startups/#commentsMon, 01 Feb 2016 23:59:10 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1862Tl;dr: As a co-founder or founding CEO of a startup, everything that goes wrong is your fault. This mindset is psychologically-painful but truly empowering at the same time. Over the years as an entrepreneur, I have had other entrepreneurs share their problems and had a fair chunk of my own to deal with. Unfortunately, there is one trend that I still see after all these years. Most of them simply complain and blame external things. They complain about not having money. If they have that, they complain about not having a developer or a co-founder. Or they complain about their co-founders. Better yet, if they have all of that, they complain about stagnant growth, team being slackers, and not having enough time…… Complaining is okay. We all do it. What is NOT okay is the mentality that hides behind these complaints – i-e it is not my fault. Who’s fault is it? Having worked with 3 entrepreneurial ventures, 3 selling gigs, and 5 years of working with teams, it has dawned on me that; It’s all your fault. You have to own the problem otherwise you are essentially declaring yourself a slave to the externalities and running a “lucky” company. Once you own it, there […]

As a co-founder or founding CEO of a startup, everything that goes wrong is your fault. This mindset is psychologically-painful but truly empowering at the same time.

Over the years as an entrepreneur, I have had other entrepreneurs share their problems and had a fair chunk of my own to deal with. Unfortunately, there is one trend that I still see after all these years.

Most of them simply complain and blame external things.

They complain about not having money. If they have that, they complain about not having a developer or a co-founder. Or they complain about their co-founders.

Better yet, if they have all of that, they complain about stagnant growth, team being slackers, and not having enough time……

Complaining is okay. We all do it.

What is NOT okay is the mentality that hides behind these complaints – i-e it is not my fault.

Who’s fault is it?

Having worked with 3 entrepreneurial ventures, 3 selling gigs, and 5 years of working with teams, it has dawned on me that;

It’s all your fault.

You have to own the problem otherwise you are essentially declaring yourself a slave to the externalities and running a “lucky” company. Once you own it, there is no complaining or blaming – only decisions.

The team member who is contaminating the culture? You choose to work with him.

The strategy that failed? You articulated or voted in confidence of it.

The “market” or “industry” is messed up? You chose to operate within it.

The company lost focus in tough times? You were leading the wolf-pack.

Leading or Co-Founding a Startup

If you are fortunate enough to be a co-founder or founding CEO, every single thing is your fault. Unlike politicians, presidents, or professional CEO’s who blame the last guy – you cannot do that.

This is because your start-up is like an ecosystem you created from ground up – people, mission, vision, culture, etc.

You created it.

The downside of this startup philosophy is that it is never ending and psychologically-crippling: to take on every problem and own it. It is already lonely for a startup CEO or a co-founder and this mindset further makes that loneliness unpleasant.

Learn to make it personal (i-e I am inexperienced with business validation ) without taking it personally (i-e I suck as an entrepreneur). And if you find yours complaining or blaming, you must take control (make decisions).

Lessons Learned

Tl;dr – As a co-founder or founding CEO of a startup, everything that happens is all your fault. It is an extremely psychologically-painful experience but truly empowering at the same time.

Psychology – Learn to make it personal (i-e I am inexperienced with business validation ) without taking it personally (i-e I suck as an entrepreneur). And if you find yourself complaining or blaming, you must take control (make decisions).

Culture – Set the team culture to share the similar mentality otherwise only one will take responsibility while others stay quite.

Entrepreneurship– As the company grows beyond the co-founders, maybe you can take on the a different philosophy but until your start-up is a family – this is the only one that has worked for me.

]]>https://jawwad.me/all-your-fault-mentality-in-startups/feed/31862How to Make Difficult Decisionshttps://jawwad.me/difficult-decisions/
https://jawwad.me/difficult-decisions/#commentsSun, 24 Jan 2016 03:19:20 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1851On a typical Saturday morning, I sat down with a pen and paper to make a rather untypical decision – a difficult one. What was originally intended to be a clear one-page write-up, ended up being a messy mind map of potential next steps – with the decision somewhere lost in it. Skimming over my thought process on those pages made me realize that I (and my brain) needed a better way (strategy or framework) to make difficult decisions. It is easy to lose long term perspective when facing a difficult decision as an entrepreneur (i.e your startup) or personally (relationships, ethics etc.). In this stage of decision dilemma, our emotional state heavily influences how we think about the future (i-e Tetris Effect) – which leads to mistakes, procrastination, and indecisiveness. Difficult Life Decisions I have experienced the above in both my personal and professional life – and will most likely be revisited by them in the near future. Some of them include; Startup – Pivot the startup or persist a little more? Professional – Consciously set a culture or let the team itself have an in-born culture? Professional – Persist in motivating and leading team members or letting them […]

]]>On a typical Saturday morning, I sat down with a pen and paper to make a rather untypical decision – a difficult one. What was originally intended to be a clear one-page write-up, ended up being a messy mind map of potential next steps – with the decision somewhere lost in it. Skimming over my thought process on those pages made me realize that I (and my brain) needed a better way (strategy or framework) to make difficult decisions.

Professional – Consciously set a culture or let the team itself have an in-born culture?

Professional – Persist in motivating and leading team members or letting them go?

Personal – Nurture or end a current relationship?

Personal – Accept a good full-time job or continue building my venture after graduation?

Having had to make the above decisions, I have come to the realization that there is no “correct” decision but there is a “best decision at that time”.

Questions for Making Difficult Decisions

I’ve employed these questions to help guide my difficult decision making process.

Is it a “Bottleneck” Decision? Many times in life and business non-bottleneck decisions change over time. For example, a low performing employee is not the bottleneck decision when the company as a whole is struggling. This rule also prevents people from finding faults to blame.

Am I searching for easy or correct Decisions? Realize that you will only have the “best” decision for the current situation – not the easiest or correct. Afterwards, everything will be okay.

Am I deciding with my heart or head or both? Heart and head both play a very critical role in making tough decisions. The heart (gut) can keep you going in your business or personal life even when your head (facts) tell you otherwise. Both approaches are okay, just be aware of which ones are you listening too.

How am I going to feel about this in 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 years? This 10/10/10 rule helps equalize the emotional playing field. What may feel intense in the short-term many be barely noticeable in 10 months or 10 years when compared with the bigger picture.

Have I done my homework to be decisive about it going forward?

What did I learn from last difficult decision and what can I improve this time?

]]>https://jawwad.me/difficult-decisions/feed/51851How to “Learn Fast” as an Entrepreneurhttps://jawwad.me/learn-fast-entrepreneur/
https://jawwad.me/learn-fast-entrepreneur/#commentsSun, 17 Jan 2016 14:41:04 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1840Almost all thought leaders in entrepreneurship emphasize learning fast as an entrepreneur. “The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else” – Eric Ries of Lean Startup However, rarely any focus on HOW to learn fast and measure if you are doing it EFFECTIVELY. They assume entrepreneurs will take care of that…… But in my experience, entrepreneurs are most likely to be blinded with biases. This is due to a variety of factors – stress, fear, uncertainty, making prompt decisions etc. which affects their ability to think critically through a situation. You see “learning” is a broad topic and it has to be broken down. Many chain-smokers or drug-addicts go back to their normal behavior shortly after a health issue – stroke or even heart attack. They do not “learn” that their habits are causing self-harm neither do they really take time to consider its effect on environment or their loved ones. Likewise is true for entrepreneurs. Therefore, entrepreneurs should break down learning into – experience, reflection, takeaway, and application. For example, if a project or a venture fails take time out to note down what went wrong, what to do better next time, and what not to […]

However, rarely any focus on HOW to learn fast and measure if you are doing it EFFECTIVELY. They assume entrepreneurs will take care of that……

But in my experience, entrepreneurs are most likely to be blinded with biases. This is due to a variety of factors – stress, fear, uncertainty, making prompt decisions etc. which affects their ability to think critically through a situation.

Entrepreneurs must turn off their biases.

You see “learning” is a broad topic and it has to be broken down. Many chain-smokers or drug-addicts go back to their normal behavior shortly after a health issue – stroke or even heart attack. They do not “learn” that their habits are causing self-harm neither do they really take time to consider its effect on environment or their loved ones. Likewise is true for entrepreneurs.

Therefore, entrepreneurs should break down learning into – experience, reflection, takeaway, and application. For example, if a project or a venture fails take time out to note down what went wrong, what to do better next time, and what not to do. Yes, write it down because your brain employs your hands and writing as tools to organize and improve itself.

I have made this mistake and I see many entrepreneurs not truly deeply learning. As the saying goes, making the same mistake the second time is like tripping over an obstacle – avoidable by paying a little attention.

Therefore, any entrepreneur wanting to learn fast must apply a very conscious effort to translate the experience into the psyche.

This is how I have tried to improve my learning as an entrepreneur;

How to Learn Effectively

KEY TO SUCCESS- WRITE IT DOWN

1. Identify the Blind Spot – What caused the setback? Was it poor understanding of the customer, poor communication with the team, lack of strategic reflection, blinded by “my baby” biases?

2. Create a Checklist to Avoid that Blind Spot – Now that you understand what went wrong. How would you do it correctly the next time? Write the steps down and follow it next time. (If doctors can save more lives using a checklist so can entrepreneurs – Checklist Manifesto).

3. Rinse and Repeat – Rarely will you ever come up with a bulletproof checklist the first time around. Update is as you discover blind spots and learn more.

4. Share these Lessons with Your Team – This will help them call each other out of on it. There is too much ego involved in startups (which is good and bad) this helps maintain a healthy balance.

]]>https://jawwad.me/learn-fast-entrepreneur/feed/418402015 Year in Review for “Forever Learning”https://jawwad.me/2015-year-review/
https://jawwad.me/2015-year-review/#commentsSat, 26 Dec 2015 17:52:57 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1794This year in-review is special because the end of 2015 also brings about the 5th birthday of this place. This blog began as a quiet place for my self-reflection, however, today I am lucky to be co-learning with a community of friends, mentors, and my readers who all benefit from one another. What follows below is a collection of the most important lessons we learned together in 2015. Some of them are from the blogs I wrote while others came about from elsewhere. Top Lessons from Year in Review – 2015 Why We Fail at Achieving New Year Goals Fix the Leakage (Bad Habits) before you pour more water (Goals) How to “Grow” Through Life (not “GO”) Commit Time to Tasks that are Important but Not Urgent (Gym, Habits, Friends etc) How to Talk to Yourself (w/o being crazy) “Watch your thoughts, they become words. What your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. How to Fail Forward Journey towards our goals is a hurdle race where we overcome unknown barriers as we go further. Failing is inevitable, hence, fail forward by learning. How […]

]]>This year in-review is special because the end of 2015 also brings about the 5th birthday of this place. This blog began as a quiet place for my self-reflection, however, today I am lucky to be co-learning with a community of friends, mentors, and my readers who all benefit from one another.

What follows below is a collection of the most important lessons we learned together in 2015. Some of them are from the blogs I wrote while others came about from elsewhere.

“Watch your thoughts, they become words. What your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

“Reacting” is impulsive which has consequences for your emotions, mood, and stress levels. “Responding” is conscious where you take charge and not let your mood, confidence, and stress levels be manipulated.

]]>https://jawwad.me/2015-year-review/feed/21794How to Turn Around a Bad Dayhttps://jawwad.me/turn-around-a-bad-day/
https://jawwad.me/turn-around-a-bad-day/#commentsSat, 28 Nov 2015 11:28:28 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1781If life’s journey is truly full of minor frustrations and setbacks, how can you change your mood or emotions to turn around a bad day? How do you ensure that your mental state is conditioned for maximum productivity regardless of the situation at hand? Some days start off on the wrong foot – a missed bus, rainy day, no morning coffee, not enough sleep, or an unexpected argument with a loved one. No matter how external the source of your discontent may feel, it is all internal – in your head. It is within your control and feeling discontent is a decision you made subconsciously. Therefore, instead of slipping down a downward spiral, take charge and try climbing the following ladders; 1. Accept that Setbacks and Uncertainties are Part of the Journey 2. Pure joy is in the journey, rather than just reaching the destination. 3. Catch the Emotion that Slips in Subconciously – Regularly monitor your emotional and body language. Are you stressed? Hunched? How do you want to feel? 4. Take a moment to be grateful – Change your state by changing your focus. What are you thankful or grateful for? Work, Health, Kids, Loved one, etc. Remind […]

Some days start off on the wrong foot – a missed bus, rainy day, no morning coffee, not enough sleep, or an unexpected argument with a loved one. No matter how external the source of your discontent may feel, it is all internal – in your head. It is within your control and feeling discontent is a decision you made subconsciously.

Therefore, instead of slipping down a downward spiral, take charge and try climbing the following ladders;

3. Catch the Emotion that Slips in Subconciously – Regularly monitor your emotional and body language. Are you stressed? Hunched? How do you want to feel?

4. Take a moment to be grateful – Change your state by changing your focus. What are you thankful or grateful for? Work, Health, Kids, Loved one, etc. Remind yourself to not take these for granted.

5. Accomplish a Goal – Break the depressed chain by doing a task that your brain records as a victory.

6. Walk Around – Emotion follows motion. Don’t just sit down hunched or your body language will reinforce the stress. Smile. Take deep breathes. Listen to your pump-up music list.

Overtime, this process will become second nature. Most successful people, have a strong muscle to turn any situation around and remain optimal mental state of performance. Now, that is a skill worth mastering!

]]>https://jawwad.me/turn-around-a-bad-day/feed/41781How to Enjoy the Journeyhttps://jawwad.me/how-to-enjoy-the-journey/
https://jawwad.me/how-to-enjoy-the-journey/#commentsSat, 07 Nov 2015 13:37:18 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1773“It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end” ~ Ernest Hemingway Train Journey to Toronto The faces of the eager commuters in my train instantly changed. The train driver had just announced a delay of 15 minutes. Some sleep-deprived passengers woke up with a frowny face while others checked time and non-verbally sent negative vibes of disapproval throughout the bus. Meanwhile, there were a few passengers that seemed untouched and maintained their zen-like peace. Metaphorically, the setting represented a symbolic situation. This journey on the bus was means to these passengers’ destination – mostly for their 9-5 job. As passengers they had little to no control as to what happens in their journey towards their destination. Delays, emergency alarms, missing the bus, or annoying neighbor passengers are all frequent occurrences. Few passengers that maintained their peace understood that the ability to enjoy the journey is related to your willingness to sit back and relax like a patient passenger. You have to remind yourself to do this, otherwise your mind snaps out of the moment around you and into a world of contingency-planning and constant worry. Life Journey We […]

“It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Train Journey to Toronto

The faces of the eager commuters in my train instantly changed. The train driver had just announced a delay of 15 minutes.

Some sleep-deprived passengers woke up with a frowny face while others checked time and non-verbally sent negative vibes of disapproval throughout the bus. Meanwhile, there were a few passengers that seemed untouched and maintained their zen-like peace.

Metaphorically, the setting represented a symbolic situation. This journey on the bus was means to these passengers’ destination – mostly for their 9-5 job.

As passengers they had little to no control as to what happens in their journey towards their destination. Delays, emergency alarms, missing the bus, or annoying neighbor passengers are all frequent occurrences.

Few passengers that maintained their peace understood that the ability to enjoy the journey is related to your willingness to sit back and relax like a patient passenger. You have to remind yourself to do this, otherwise your mind snaps out of the moment around you and into a world of contingency-planning and constant worry.

Life Journey We All Are In

Likewise in different aspects of our life, we are faced with setbacks in our journey towards a destination. These could range from studying towards achieving good grades, working to improve your relationships, or improving your health.

The essence of enjoying the journey is to be a “patient passenger” mentality. To enjoy the moments between the “destinations”. We as passengers fixate on the future destinations that promise resolution to our current needs – commuting to get to the office, end of workweek, making X amount of $, finding your soulmate etc. We think and act as if it is only the destination where we can finally drop our backpacks and finally be happy and present with life.

There are three problems with waiting for these destinations before you let yourself enjoy;

Destination is a Small Percentage of Life – Significant portion of life consists of us being in transit to get somewhere – the pursuit in achievement of a goal. If you can’t enjoy the journey, you will have little to no moments of enjoyment.

Moments of arrival at Destination are Short-lived – Soon after a few breaths at the destination we are distracted by the next destination – uncertainties or insecurities.

It’s not about getting to the Destination but what the Journey Makes Us – In the end it is the intangibles that give us the most meaning. The struggle, the people we met, memories, and how it shaped our character

Lessons Learned – How to Enjoy the Journey

Learn to be a “good passenger” of your journey – actively enjoy the moments between “destinations” as they make majority of your life.

]]>https://jawwad.me/how-to-enjoy-the-journey/feed/81773How to be a Super Herohttps://jawwad.me/super-hero/
https://jawwad.me/super-hero/#commentsSat, 17 Oct 2015 12:17:38 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1764We all have a super hero figure we look up to – Batman, Superman, Nelson Mandela or even Justin Bieber. We read up on their stories and find refuge in them for the day to day things we struggle with – love, loss, obstacles, pain, unjust world and victory. Their journey from slavery to freedom, gives us hope for our worldly worries. For batman, his journey was overcoming his fear of bats and choosing justice over vengeance for his parent’s murderer. At the core, the very stories these heroes tell themselves determine their values and emotions which in turn fuel character and decisions. For Batman, after having his parents killed by a criminal, he told himself the story that this was his calling to a greater purpose in life and he became a crime fighting vigilante. For Nelson Mandela, despite being a respected lawyer, he told himself the story that this was his calling to do greater good for his fellow citizens and he became the leader people were seeking. For your inevitable setbacks in life, what story do you tell yourself? Do you turn your obstacles into missions? Don’t just watch and look up to super heroes. Be a […]

]]>We all have a super hero figure we look up to – Batman, Superman, Nelson Mandela or even Justin Bieber.

We read up on their stories and find refuge in them for the day to day things we struggle with – love, loss, obstacles, pain, unjust world and victory. Their journey from slavery to freedom, gives us hope for our worldly worries. For batman, his journey was overcoming his fear of bats and choosing justice over vengeance for his parent’s murderer.

For Batman, after having his parents killed by a criminal, he told himself the story that this was his calling to a greater purpose in life and he became a crime fighting vigilante. For Nelson Mandela, despite being a respected lawyer, he told himself the story that this was his calling to do greater good for his fellow citizens and he became the leader people were seeking.

For your inevitable setbacks in life, what story do you tell yourself? Do you turn your obstacles into missions?

Don’t just watch and look up to super heroes. Be a superhero yourself. What do you fight for?

Lessons Learned – How to be a Super Hero

The story we tell ourselves is the story that shapes our decisions and eventually our lives.

Your internal story drives your external performance.

Don’t just look up to heroes. Live your life like them.

Self-Reflection

This is what I used to come up with my story. Fill in the highlighted blanks to write your story.

Note: In your journey from slavery to freedom you will fail many times just like how heroes did. It is knowing how to come back from setbacks, that will get you through.

]]>https://jawwad.me/super-hero/feed/71764Sharpscholar on Dragons’ Den – Jawwad Siddiquihttps://jawwad.me/sharpscholar-dragons-den-jawwad-siddiqui/
https://jawwad.me/sharpscholar-dragons-den-jawwad-siddiqui/#respondFri, 09 Oct 2015 11:22:36 +0000https://jawwad.me/?p=3955Excited to share that our project, Sharpscholar, has appeared on Dragons’ Den (aka Shark Tank in the U.S)! Here is our episode: Update: I wrote a follow-up article to share my learnings about how to get on dragons’ den and make most of the marketing via publicity (public relations).

]]>https://jawwad.me/sharpscholar-dragons-den-jawwad-siddiqui/feed/03955Accepting Uncertain Life Path & Purposehttps://jawwad.me/uncertainty/
https://jawwad.me/uncertainty/#commentsSat, 03 Oct 2015 11:11:31 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1756It was an average Sunday afternoon, I had taken out my bike and gone for a ride around my neighborhood. Before long, I found myself near my high school – bringing back memories from years ago. The scene itself – with the football field or the empty spot where the hot dog stand used to be – was too peaceful for me to have quickly biked through. I got off my bike and decided to sit down on the bench to whom I was not a stranger. Most of my high school friends and myself are in our 20s – a time in which we feel a lot of uncertainty about our life’s purpose or definite path. This became clear to me after on-the-street conversations with friends or the people who reached out to me for advice, only to find out that I had as much uncertainty as them if not more. Uncertainty about what professional career to pursue. Uncertainty about what our driving ambitions should be in life. Uncertainty about if our friends are the right ones to be around. Uncertainty about what makes us happy? Uncertainty about our weight, appearance, or social status. Uncertainty about finding your life companion. […]

]]>It was an average Sunday afternoon, I had taken out my bike and gone for a ride around my neighborhood.
Before long, I found myself near my high school – bringing back memories from years ago. The scene itself – with the football field or the empty spot where the hot dog stand used to be – was too peaceful for me to have quickly biked through. I got off my bike and decided to sit down on the bench to whom I was not a stranger.
Bench behind my High School

Most of my high school friends and myself are in our 20s – a time in which we feel a lot of uncertainty about our life’s purpose or definite path. This became clear to me after on-the-street conversations with friends or the people who reached out to me for advice, only to find out that I had as much uncertainty as them if not more.

The search for certainty in fueled by our need to be comfortable – to have pleasure and to avoid pain. However, no matter how perfect our lives become, we always have some uncertainty. This infinite dilemma is the struggle.

The points below is how I have tried to make sense of it – with the caveat that I am still figuring this out myself and I’m “uncertain” about these recommendations:

Accept that Everything is Uncertainty. When you are feeling stressed, it’s because of uncertainty about some outcome. If you are feeling anxiety, it’s because of uncertainty about the future. If you are regretting a decision, it’s about the opportunity cost. If you are jealous of others, it’s because of whether you’re getting the most out of your life.

Realize that No One Likes Uncertainty. Day in and day out we all feel uncertainty and we don’t like it. Some people have grown comfortable with it than others, but even those people still don’t like it. Thus, our minds try to find certainty in some way – through finding something we’re more comfortable with. Giving up your start-up to join a company, pleasure food, shopping, alcohol, making impulsive decisions, promptly changing life companions, or just shutting down.

Notice and Reflect on It. Face it. It is unpleasant but don’t run from it. Reflect on it and make a decision on what is best. If you are uncertain about yourself, improve on it rather than let it affect your self-confidence. If you are an entrepreneur, know that this is your optimal state and manage your risks. If you are uncertain about your life companion, change it or work at it. Don’t let uncertainty cripple you to take action or make decisions.

Have a Guiding Belief System. If uncertainties are always around, what can you do to overcome them in the long term? A solid belief system that serves as internal certainty – knowing that whatever uncertainties or challenges come my way I will tackle them as such. A belief system will guide you in your toughest times. A belief could be as simple as a quote, how your role model would react, or what falls in-line with your character. What makes it difficult is that there is no universal sound belief system.

Uncertainties are everywhere. Would you let them subconsciously drive you or learn to use them to your advantage consciously?

]]>https://jawwad.me/uncertainty/feed/111756How to Get on Dragons’ Denhttps://jawwad.me/how-to-get-on-dragons-den/
https://jawwad.me/how-to-get-on-dragons-den/#commentsTue, 15 Sep 2015 16:43:14 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=2139As the co-founder and CEO of SharpScholar, our company pitched on CBC Dragons’ Den in October, 2015. Shortly afterwards, we were able to get significant media coverage (will go into stats and specific later) – through newspapers, online articles, social media, and promotion via the Dragons’ (Nicole, Harley, and Michael) themselves. In this blog post, I will cover step-by-step on how we did that. By the end you will be able to answer the following questions; How to get on Dragons’ Den? How to Get Massive Media Coverage after Dragons’ Den Bonus: Things I Wish I knew Before Dragons’ Den SharpScholar on Dargons’ Den First, here is our dragons’ den youtube video. It has gotten over 8,000+ unique views and is one the most viewed clips in the season. Do give it a watch before I dive deeper into the specifics. How to get on Dragons’ Den? Step 1 – Apply for Auditions First, you should understand the application process. The applying part is easy you just go to their website and check to see when the next auditions are going to be. Then just follow the on-site instructions to submit an application and attend one of the public auditions date. Step 2 […]

SharpScholar on Dargons’ Den

First, here is our dragons’ den youtube video. It has gotten over 8,000+ unique views and is one the most viewed clips in the season. Do give it a watch before I dive deeper into the specifics.

How to get on Dragons’ Den?

Step 1 – Apply for Auditions

First, you should understand the application process. The applying part is easy you just go to their website and check to see when the next auditions are going to be. Then just follow the on-site instructions to submit an application and attend one of the public auditions date.

Step 2 – Get Selected for Airing

Now, the hard part is to actually succeed in the auditions and be aired on TV because they do thousands of them and only pick a few successful ones.

We got rejected the first time and made it on TV the second time around. Therefore, I hope you don’t make the same mistakes that we did the first time (and even some the second time around).

Here are my two tips;

Have a good story to “sell” on TV – people want entertainment

Be very presentable and TV personality – again, people want entertainment

I think you can see the theme now – it is a all about entertainment. I used the following template to come up with our pitch for the audition (you can see it in action in the video above).

How to Get Massive Media Coverage after Dragons’ Den

Here is the good news. If you were selected to be aired on Dragons’ Den the chances are that you have a really good story to sell. Now, after you are done the shooting with Dragons’ Den you should get working on contacting the media as soon as possible.

First, don’t contact the media if the pitch did not turn out to be what you wanted it to be. For example, if the dragons completely bashed your company you would not want to tell that to the whole world.

With that said, this is what I did:

Call up all local newspapers and tell them – “Hey! A local young student of <city name> was on Dragons’ Den and turned down $100K offer!”

Call up your school’s alumni department and tell them – “Hey! I am a previous graduate of Queen’s University and I was on dragons’ den – I think it would be a great story to share with current students!”

Call up other interested communities – I told DMZ (biggest incubator in Canada) since we were one of their companies – they tweeted us out too!

Here is the screenshot of the email I sent to the local news papers – I got a call back within a few hours;

Media Outreach Email to Local Newspapers

As a result of lots of calling and emailing, we were able to generate the following media coverage;

Bonus: Things I Wish I knew Before Dragons’ Den

Actual Pitch is Much Longer – The editors and producers cut out most of the pitch and air / publish only enough to keep the audience glued to their seats. My pitch was about 25 minutes but they edited it down to 4 minutes (they cut out almost 85% of it!).

They will make it Dramatic – Damn, they got me every time I had a nervous look on my face. They will get you too – better yet they will add dramatic music to make it look even worse.

Dragons’ are Wearing Headphones – Dragons’ get instructed by the producers to do certain things. For example, be rude or compliment the business owner.

They will cut out most brand names – To prevent copyrights or risk of getting suied they will take out any big-name clients that you may have. Therefore, try to pitch your company in a way where it looks good even when you can’t show off the names of your clients.

I hope all of this information will help you get on Dragons’ den and give you ideas on how to make the most of it! Please comment below if you have more questions!

]]>https://jawwad.me/how-to-get-on-dragons-den/feed/12139How to Take it All Inhttps://jawwad.me/take-it-all-in/
https://jawwad.me/take-it-all-in/#commentsSat, 22 Aug 2015 14:14:20 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1744It was a regular Monday morning and I had prepared fresh coffee pots for the rush-hour – even stacked up some empty cups. The next few hours of 6 AM to 9 AM would entail nonstop coffee serving in the drive-through and the storefront. During the 18 months that I worked at Tim Hortons, I upset a few customers. From accidentally getting their coffee wrong or misinterpreting their order. Jim (fake name) was one of these upset customers. I did not stir his coffee completely and he was extremely upset with the unpleasant taste of a poorly-stirred coffee. His reaction was contagious, he cut through the line and yelled at me for messing it up. Other customers, also got panicky and started double checking their own orders. After getting a new coffee, he sat at Tim Hortons with a frowny face for the next two hours. As a result of that, I was upset and not confident in my ability to fill orders…. After a few hours I messed up another coffee order. Instead of giving Jennifer a steeped tea, I gave her a bagged tea. I was expecting her to come back and react the same way as Jim. However, […]

]]>It was a regular Monday morning and I had prepared fresh coffee pots for the rush-hour – even stacked up some empty cups. The next few hours of 6 AM to 9 AM would entail nonstop coffee serving in the drive-through and the storefront.

During the 18 months that I worked at Tim Hortons, I upset a few customers. From accidentally getting their coffee wrong or misinterpreting their order.

Jim (fake name) was one of these upset customers. I did not stir his coffee completely and he was extremely upset with the unpleasant taste of a poorly-stirred coffee. His reaction was contagious, he cut through the line and yelled at me for messing it up. Other customers, also got panicky and started double checking their own orders.

After getting a new coffee, he sat at Tim Hortons with a frowny face for the next two hours.

As a result of that, I was upset and not confident in my ability to fill orders….

After a few hours I messed up another coffee order. Instead of giving Jennifer a steeped tea, I gave her a bagged tea. I was expecting her to come back and react the same way as Jim.

However, when she came back she was calm thoughtful and did not let that coffee order change her mood – unlike Jim who was still in the store with a frown face.

In my break after this rush hour, while drinking my tea I wondered why did two people react so differently to a mistake I made?

Jim “reacted” impulsively without realizing the effect of his decision on his emotions, mood, and stress levels.

Jennifer “responded” consciously thinking through how she will deal with the situation.

I realized that, it’s not the upset customer that makes me lose confidence, but it’s my inability to handle the consequences of an upset customer that makes me lose confidence.

I realized that, it is not the conflict with a friend or a loved one that hurts us, but it’s our inability to handle the consequences caused by conflict.

I realized that, it is not the uncertain work conditions of a start-up that stress me, but it’s my inability to handle the consequences caused by these uncertainty that disturbs me.

It is not the unmet expectations from a co-worker that stress us, but it’s our inability to handle the consequences caused by unmet expectations.

It is not the traffic jams that annoys us, but it’s our inability to handle the consequences caused by traffic.

Lessons Learned – Take it All In

Most of the chaos is caused internally, not due to external events.

Things are always coming at you, thus, learn to “take it all in”.

Always respond, not react.

Reactions are always impulsive and instinctive whereas reactions are well thought through.

]]>https://jawwad.me/take-it-all-in/feed/61744How to do the Work that Mattershttps://jawwad.me/work-that-matters/
https://jawwad.me/work-that-matters/#commentsSat, 04 Jul 2015 14:52:52 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1734The Wright brothers focused on solving the problem of flight and all other problems were secondary. They did not care about safety, office, brand, name, or all other attractive activities disguised as work. By doing that, they were able to do the work that matters and solve the critical need for human flight. Henry Ford focused on creating an economical car for the average American – ignoring all other priorities such as design, brand, look, and efficiency. There’s something to be learned by the way these individuals did their work. It is a very sneaky form of procrastination, but we tend to get distracted by the rather unimportant components of work. This is because all the distractions are easier to do than the main problem. These distractions serve as mini accomplishments when in reality they’re getting us farther away from what we want to accomplish – merely wasting our time. The wright brothers wanted to solve human flight – not create the modern day airplane with infinite features. Henry ford wanted to create an economical car for average American – not the modern day car with infinite features. As a student, if you have ever found yourself spending lots of […]

]]>The Wright brothers focused on solving the problem of flight and all other problems were secondary. They did not care about safety, office, brand, name, or all other attractive activities disguised as work. By doing that, they were able to do the work that matters and solve the critical need for human flight. Henry Ford focused on creating an economical car for the average American – ignoring all other priorities such as design, brand, look, and efficiency. There’s something to be learned by the way these individuals did their work.

It is a very sneaky form of procrastination, but we tend to get distracted by the rather unimportant components of work. This is because all the distractions are easier to do than the main problem. These distractions serve as mini accomplishments when in reality they’re getting us farther away from what we want to accomplish – merely wasting our time.

The wright brothers wanted to solve human flight – not create the modern day airplane with infinite features.

Henry ford wanted to create an economical car for average American – not the modern day car with infinite features.

As a student, if you have ever found yourself spending lots of time formatting a Word document assignment, you are guilty of this. If you ever found yourself memorizing and doing past exams before an exam, just to get in A+ (instead of maximizing your learning), you are guilty.

Just like yourself, throughout my day-to-day activities I’m seduced by the work that does not matter. In school, it was the work to get high grades instead of maximizing learning and experience. At my work, it is the urgent and important work (customer service, marketing, or daily tasks) that take priority over non-urgent, but important work (fixing critical issues of the business).

In writing this blog, it is the work of thinking and planning that distracted me from just taking a pen and paper and writing this out. One must focus on doing the work that matters and be critically aware of the distracting work – something that feels like work, but is not.

Lessons Learned

Be more aware of the 80/20 rule in every aspect of life.

Always question “the work” you do – mostly it’s disguised as work.

Always do work to directly solve the problem and be certain to have that clearly articulated.

The quality of work matters over the quantity of work.

We tend to deviate towards easier part of our tasks list instead of working on the problem.

]]>https://jawwad.me/work-that-matters/feed/121734How to Fail Forwardhttps://jawwad.me/fail-forward/
https://jawwad.me/fail-forward/#commentsSat, 06 Jun 2015 12:01:38 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1721He had already repeated a grade in elementary school and now found himself placed in the lowest division of the lowest class. Worse yet, he then went on to fail the entrance exam to military college twice. This unknown child failed many times in different aspects of life, until at age of 62 when he became the man known as “Winston Churchill”. Unfortunately, it does not matter who you are – Winston Churchill or (your name goes here) – you will inevitably and consistently fail in your attempts towards many goals in life. Goals such as losing weight, eating healthy, being a better person, or doing better in school. How is that the highly successful people failed many times before accomplishing their goals? If there is no fail-proof way to your goal, how do you fail forward? How can we come to understand failure as a normal part of life – and not shy away from it? Hurdle Race Our journey towards our goals is much like a hurdle race where we overcome unknown barriers as we go further. When we start, we are seldom aware of the barriers that lie ahead. Here is my personal example. Goal: […]

]]>He had already repeated a grade in elementary school and now found himself placed in the lowest division of the lowest class. Worse yet, he then went on to fail the entrance exam to military college twice. This unknown child failed many times in different aspects of life, until at age of 62 when he became the man known as “Winston Churchill”.

Unfortunately, it does not matter who you are – Winston Churchill or (your name goes here) – you will inevitably and consistently fail in your attempts towards many goals in life.

Goals such as losing weight, eating healthy, being a better person, or doing better in school.

How is that the highly successful people failed many times before accomplishing their goals? If there is no fail-proof way to your goal, how do you fail forward?

How can we come to understand failure as a normal part of life – and not shy away from it?

Hurdle Race

Our journey towards our goals is much like a hurdle race where we overcome unknown barriers as we go further. When we start, we are seldom aware of the barriers that lie ahead.

Goal Roadmap

Here is my personal example.

Goal: Gym Routine – Going to the gym twice a week.

On day one. This is how my roadmap looked like – full of barriers I was not fully aware off.

Goal: Gym Routine

Two weeks into my goal, and am already struggling to go to the gym twice a week. The barriers are poor time management, lack of accountability, and lack of purpose.

Goal: Gym – Barriers to Overcome

To successfully move forward, my goal temporarily becomes to overcome these three barriers. Therefore, I improve my time management (by scheduling it in advance), I get a gym buddy to have more accountability, and I explicitly write down why I want to go to the gym twice a week and its positive effects on my. Having overcome these barriers, I’m ready for the next one.

Goal: Gym – Overcame Barriers

The process repeats itself until you get to your end goal. (I am still in-progress)

Goal: Gym – CHECK!

It is hard to identify obstacles that make you fail – i.e. lack of work habits, lack of motivation etc. These obstacles are hidden under human ego or our unwillingness to accept our mistakes – or our tendency to point out words instead of in words.

Lessons Learned

Identifying barriers are just as important as identifying the end-goal.

]]>https://jawwad.me/fail-forward/feed/131721How to Talk to Yourself (w/o being crazy)https://jawwad.me/talk-to-yourself/
https://jawwad.me/talk-to-yourself/#commentsSat, 18 Apr 2015 14:51:08 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1683Facebook, tweeting, instagramming, or texting – we spend a good portion of our time talking to others. After all, we are social creatures and human. On the flip side how much time do you spend talking to yourself? (Not being “that guy” that talks in public.) You see every time you talk to others or consume information on the web you are changing how your brain talks to itself. They affect yours thoughts words actions and eventually habits. As Lao Tzu puts it; Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch yours words; they become actions. Watch yours actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. Quiz Yourself: Think back to a task you performed recently that was “influenced” by external factors? Started a new TV Show? etc. Example You begin hearing about “Suits” from your friends – facebook, twitter, texting or in-person etc. You start thinking about it (thoughts), to fit in you begin talking about it (words), followed with watching trailers (action), and before you know it you are “OMG! So Addicted!” (habit). There is nothing wrong with the scenario above – its how we learn from fellow humans and […]

Facebook, tweeting, instagramming, or texting – we spend a good portion of our time talking to others. After all, we are social creatures and human.

On the flip side how much time do you spend talking to yourself? (Not being “that guy” that talks in public.)

You see every time you talk to others or consume information on the web you are changing how your brain talks to itself. They affect yours thoughts words actions and eventually habits.

As Lao Tzu puts it;

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch yours words; they become actions.

Watch yours actions; they become habit.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Quiz Yourself: Think back to a task you performed recently that was “influenced” by external factors? Started a new TV Show? etc.

Example

You begin hearing about “Suits” from your friends – facebook, twitter, texting or in-person etc. You start thinking about it (thoughts), to fit in you begin talking about it (words), followed with watching trailers (action), and before you know it you are “OMG! So Addicted!” (habit).

There is nothing wrong with the scenario above – its how we learn from fellow humans and form societies, cultures, and traditions. However, in today’s information age, as long as you are doing it consciously.

External factors don’t take into consideration your internal factors – goals and priorities. It is your job to talk to yourself and filter it out.

I talk to myself through writing (such as this), tweeting to myself, and talking out loud (yes, being “that guy” on the street) – it is worth it. It makes me focused on my priorities and prevents brain’s tendency to indulge in immediate gratification over delayed gratification.

]]>https://jawwad.me/talk-to-yourself/feed/81683How to “Grow” through Life (not “go”)https://jawwad.me/grow-focus-on-important/
https://jawwad.me/grow-focus-on-important/#commentsSat, 28 Feb 2015 15:19:36 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1615An athlete knows that to grow his muscles, he or she must do something different than last time. For example, an exercise with more weight or a different exercise altogether. Just like that, we need to look at different areas of our lives (finance, family, work etc), and attempt to do something different (i.e important/impactful) to GROW through life. Otherwise, we might be just not making much progress. I used to think that if I just kept myself busy with school, work, or hobbies then I will “grow” through life. However, it didn’t work out to be that way! Keeping myself busy with school (i.e., highlight or read notes) did not necessarily give me that “growing” feeling. The same was true with work and hobbies. This experience got me to consciously realize that I was keeping myself busy with “not important and not urgent” activities. Or not taking the time to plan ahead about what I wanted to accomplish. Understanding the Impact of Your Work Almost all work we do in any area of our life can be broken down into the following buckets (by their importance and urgency). For example, we can constantly just do things as they come to […]

I used to think that if I just kept myself busy with school, work, or hobbies then I will “grow” through life. However, it didn’t work out to be that way!

Keeping myself busy with school (i.e., highlight or read notes) did not necessarily give me that “growing” feeling. The same was true with work and hobbies.

This experience got me to consciously realize that I was keeping myself busy with “not important and not urgent” activities. Or not taking the time to plan ahead about what I wanted to accomplish.

Understanding the Impact of Your Work

Almost all work we do in any area of our life can be broken down into the following buckets (by their importance and urgency).

Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle

For example, we can constantly just do things as they come to our attention – clean the kitchen, improve our diet, or go to the gym (i-e not important, but urgent).

However, if one wants to “grow” through life they should take out time for “important and not urgent” activities (see the diagram above). These include maintaining your health, changing your habits, committing to future goals, and planning ahead. All these things are important but not urgent.

Don’t know where you stand? Do a personal audit by taking a pen and paper and jotting down the kind of work you keep yourself busy with.

Categorizing Work According to its Impact

To realize where you are spending the most time, jot down your work/activities in each of the respective buckets. This will allow you to consciously realize (just like I did), as to where you are spending your time. From there, you can figure out what you should do to spend more time on important tasks.

Categorizing your activities according to their importance and urgency.

So, are you spending time on important tasks and growing through life? Or are you just “going” through life?

]]>https://jawwad.me/grow-focus-on-important/feed/111615Why we Fail at New Year’s Resolutionshttps://jawwad.me/new-year-resolutions/
https://jawwad.me/new-year-resolutions/#commentsSat, 10 Jan 2015 14:53:43 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1606Would you pour water into a leaking bucket? Yes, off course not. However, replace the bucket with your brain and water with your New Year goals. The same analogy applies, our goals leak out of our brain. Some of mine did too and that is why we fail at new year’s resolutions. It is the reason why every year I see my gym packed for first two weeks of January and quiet for rest of the year. I was one of them in 2013. Or people buying books just to catch dust on the shelf. Before I proceed, are you wondering what cases these “brain leakages”? From my own brain’s leakage learnings, I conclude that it is caused by social norms, resistance brain, and poor self-awareness chronologically. Social Norms Social Norms are the things we begin to hear from our friends in the New Year. “Hey! Any new year resolutions?” “Yes! I am going to go to the gym too!” Thus, many times we set up goals just to fit in the conversations. Shortly afterwards, social conversations switch to “Man! It’s so hard keeping up with the gym!” “Me too!” Before we know it we fit it by saying yes […]

]]>Would you pour water into a leaking bucket? Yes, off course not. However, replace the bucket with your brain and water with your New Year goals. The same analogy applies, our goals leak out of our brain. Some of mine did too and that is why we fail at new year’s resolutions.

It is the reason why every year I see my gym packed for first two weeks of January and quiet for rest of the year. I was one of them in 2013. Or people buying books just to catch dust on the shelf.

Before I proceed, are you wondering what cases these “brain leakages”? From my own brain’s leakage learnings, I conclude that it is caused by social norms, resistance brain, and poor self-awareness chronologically.

Social Norms

Social Norms are the things we begin to hear from our friends in the New Year. “Hey! Any new year resolutions?” “Yes! I am going to go to the gym too!” Thus, many times we set up goals just to fit in the conversations. Shortly afterwards, social conversations switch to “Man! It’s so hard keeping up with the gym!” “Me too!” Before we know it we fit it by saying yes we failed too!

Social Norms result us in taking up goals that we may not have. For example, hitting the gym that all of our friends seem to be doing. And feeling good about failing at them because my friends failed too!

Resistance Brain

Have you ever felt uncomfortable after taking on a big challenge? Yes, that is the resistance brain. For every goal you take up your brain (“Lizard Brain”) sends signals of resistance. You will fail, you are not good enough, forget about it! In matter of few weeks the resistance takes over your goals and you forget about them.

Remember, as newton said, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you put up a fight with your resistance brain it will eventual give up.

Self-Awareness

Lack of self-awareness is the holy grail of poor goals. Our brains favor immediate gratification over long term gain. Thus, when hitting the gym. We forget that it might be an exhausting experience but forget about its influence on our health, stress, productivity and body. Lack of self-awareness is what results in falling victim to the resistance brain and the social norms.

Next Steps for 2015

As we proceed into the New Year it is work self-reflecting on these leakages. With this blog, I was and am working on improving my stage 3 – self-awareness. Which stage are you on? Which leakage must you stop?

]]>https://jawwad.me/new-year-resolutions/feed/31606Ups and Downs of 2014https://jawwad.me/ups-and-downs-of-2014/
https://jawwad.me/ups-and-downs-of-2014/#commentsSat, 27 Dec 2014 15:12:27 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1591 Summary: Personal Development is slow, uncomfortable, and never-ending. This year’s review will be a bit different because the year itself was different! It was full of missed goals, lessons learned, and some ups. Don’t take this post as a Journal of my annual tasks, but rather a reflection of those. Unlike many other self-development blogs and books, I want to tell my readers about “behind the scenes” instead of editing out non marketable content. For example, I had set some goals for 2014 and failed to meet some of them. Now is the time for me to share those behind the scenes. 5 Biggest Lessons Learned in 2014 Smiling – Smiling is the only contagious disease that is worth spreading 🙂 Health – Treating your body with proper food and exercise is a full-time job. Brain – Be aware with your “lizard brain” or it will put your thoughts in auto-pilot. Friends – If you want to have strong friendships, minimize texting and maximize calling or in-person chats. Personal Development – It is slow, uncomfortable, and never-ending. Ups of 2014 Gained Weight – Not as much as I wanted to as I’m still skinny but not a “coat hanger” as […]

Summary: Personal Development is slow, uncomfortable, and never-ending.

This year’s review will be a bit different because the year itself was different! It was full of missed goals, lessons learned, and some ups.

Don’t take this post as a Journal of my annual tasks, but rather a reflection of those.

Unlike many other self-development blogs and books, I want to tell my readers about “behind the scenes” instead of editing out non marketable content. For example, I had set some goals for 2014 and failed to meet some of them. Now is the time for me to share those behind the scenes.

5 Biggest Lessons Learned in 2014

Smiling – Smiling is the only contagious disease that is worth spreading

Improved my Vocabulary – A bit of my accent is still there but I speak more clearly now.

Downs of 2014

Writing Schedule – I had set the goal to write every Saturday, but failed to do so. Upon reflecting, it was a combination of poor planning and procrastination. I will continue to improve this goal into 2015.

Gym – Failed to go three times a week. In busy days, I skipped it or found another excuse.

Swimming and Sport – They were on my 2014 to-do list but I failed to do them.

Others – This category covers all other setbacks that each of us share. For example; not doing as well in school, personal problems, social drama, or financial constraints. I share some of them too and continue towards improving them.

Lastly, I want to end the review by appreciating you reading my blog or writing back to me. Below are the top 5 posts you liked the most;

]]>https://jawwad.me/ups-and-downs-of-2014/feed/31591Smartcuts Book Summaryhttps://jawwad.me/smartcuts-book-summary/
https://jawwad.me/smartcuts-book-summary/#respondFri, 14 Nov 2014 19:46:51 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1579Goal of Smartcuts Book: To demonstrate that anyone, using lateral thinking can accelerate progress and success in their personal and professional life. Smartcuts vs Shortcuts: Shortcuts lead to rapid growth, but are typically unsustainable in the long-run. Smartcuts are sustainable through smart work and they’re done with integrity. Lateral Thinking: Shorten, Leverage, Soar: Lateral Thinking is thinking sideways, NOT up and down. There are 9 patterns of Lateral Thinking under sections of shorten, leverage, and soar. Part 1: Shorten Objective – To use lateral thinking to eliminate unnecessary cycles, but not hardwork. Snow shows how the most well-regarded presidents Hacked the Ladder by moving laterally into the White House from top positions in other fields, instead of paying their dues in lower elected offices. Indeed, lateral thinking is the thread that ties all the smartcuts together: this is the ability to question the basic assumptions of a problem and approach it sideways, and in an unconventional way. Training with Masters is an essential method for learning a skill rapidly. The cases of Jimmy Fallon and a team of heart surgeons show that the best mentors are in it for the long haul, and are personally invested in your success. But you can also have mentors that […]

]]>Goal of Smartcuts Book: To demonstrate that anyone, using lateral thinking can accelerate progress and success in their personal and professional life.

Smartcuts vs Shortcuts: Shortcuts lead to rapid growth, but are typically unsustainable in the long-run. Smartcuts are sustainable through smart work and they’re done with integrity.

Lateral Thinking: Shorten, Leverage, Soar: Lateral Thinking is thinking sideways, NOT up and down. There are 9 patterns of Lateral Thinking under sections of shorten, leverage, and soar.

Part 1: Shorten

Objective – To use lateral thinking to eliminate unnecessary cycles, but not hardwork.

Snow shows how the most well-regarded presidents Hacked the Ladder by moving laterally into the White House from top positions in other fields, instead of paying their dues in lower elected offices. Indeed, lateral thinking is the thread that ties all the smartcuts together: this is the ability to question the basic assumptions of a problem and approach it sideways, and in an unconventional way.

Training with Masters is an essential method for learning a skill rapidly. The cases of Jimmy Fallon and a team of heart surgeons show that the best mentors are in it for the long haul, and are personally invested in your success. But you can also have mentors that you never meet. Jimmy Fallon studied his favorite comics for years. And anyone can watch videos online, read books, and imitate the masters.

Rapid Feedback. This technique is all the rage in tech startups who are “running lean”, and Snow also shows how The Second City uses it to pump out brilliant young comedians. The best feedback is depersonalized, so you see your efforts as experiments instead of referendums on your ability. Experiments can fail, but you can’t fail to capitalize on failure. You must be able to ask what was done wrong and how you can improve it and learn from it.

Part 2: Leverage

Objective – Getting the most bang for your buck.

Leverage is power, and Platforms are one of its most powerful forms. The Ruby on Rails web framework has enabled newbie coders to develop their apps at blistering speeds, and the result is an explosion in useful software. Just like cars use the platform of a road (which is made of dirt, gravel, tar and asphalt) for smooth rides, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel in your work; use all the existing infrastructure you can to save effort and focus on innovation and creativity.

How are pro surfers like the electronic artist Skrillex? They’re both brilliant at catching waves. Surfers study the ocean for hours before a competition, so they can understand how the waves are breaking and catch the right ones. Skrillex did the same with EDM and the disruption of the recording industry. Research shows that you can learn to spot waves in markets, too, and you can prepare yourself to jump on them fast by always keep a toe in the water — in other words, experimenting with lots of ideas, like Google does with its well-known “20% time.”

Superconnectors are another way to gain leverage — these are people (influencers) and platforms (social media) that allow you to spread messages to millions of people in no time. Snow uses the clever example of Radio Rebelde, which enabled the Cuban revolutionaries Castro and Guevara to galvanize the country against a dictator despite being terribly outnumbered and outgunned. Superconnectors provide amplification, and if your message is authentic and enticing, it will resonate. The key to super connecting is building relationships through giving.

Part 3: SOAR

Objective – Using momentum, not experience, to dictate business and personal success.

In order to make enormous gains, you need to achieve and maintain Momentum — after all, “an object in motion tends to stay in motion.” This means never resting on your laurels when you do hit it big, and not doing the same thing over and over (like a band that has a hit and then re-writes it again and again).

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. A lot of the greatest innovations come from re-envisioning existing models by taking a step back to first principles (lateral thinking at its finest). Take Embrace, a famous solution to the high death rates of premature babies in developing countries. Instead of trying to make cheaper incubators like a NICU has, some smart entrepreneurs realized that babies just need to be kept warm. So they created a “sleeping bag for babies” that costs thousands of times less than a fancy incubator.

The final Smartcut is 10x thinking, which is one of the central ideas in another recent book, Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. This principle says that it’s actually easier to create a ten-times improvement in something than to make it only 10% better. Because such problems are so hard, there’s little competition, and it’s easier to keep going toward a solution. And if you can get others on board with your ambitious vision (like some superconnectors), you can create massive leverage — people are much more likely to support an audacious plan with strong ideals than a run-of-the-mill incremental improvement. Elon Musk and Space X provide the canonical example of this.

]]>https://jawwad.me/smartcuts-book-summary/feed/01579What Trying to Be “Cool” Taught Mehttps://jawwad.me/conform/
https://jawwad.me/conform/#commentsSat, 11 Oct 2014 13:29:34 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1561 Summary: “I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” – Rita Mae Brown Think back to your high-school days. Remember those “cool kids”? The ones that used lingo like Yo! Reaach! Seeeeeen? They wore clothes 3x their size, hung around in groups, gossiped, and skipped class. I was one of them. In fact, I preferred to be called J-Boy (after trying J-Dawg). I came to Canada just 4 months before high school, thus, I was in midst of finding a social identity. Observing the popular kids – I began to buy baggy clothes, rap music, dogtags, learning the lingo, and going to school early – sometimes skipping breakfast – to start the day off with the crew. The transition to cool was slow and painful, however, not more painful than not fitting in. Finally in grade 10, having polished up my accent and “earned my reputation” – I was one of them! Life was good! Now I was cool, had good grades, and had a part-time job! ………. Fortunately, later in the year I began to work at Tim Horton’s with people twice my age. Furthermore, even though I never told my cool friends, I devoured batman […]

Think back to your high-school days. Remember those “cool kids”? The ones that used lingo like Yo! Reaach! Seeeeeen? They wore clothes 3x their size, hung around in groups, gossiped, and skipped class.

I was one of them. In fact, I preferred to be called J-Boy (after trying J-Dawg).

Then it struck me! In my desperate attempt to fit in and conform to the norms, I had no identity of my own. I wasn’t Jawwad Siddiqui. I was some “J-Boy.”

The most frightening insight was that I failed to consciously contemplate on who I wanted to be, but instead followed to conform to cool. Similar to the sheep’s herd despite all heading towards the slaughterhouse.

Despite the realization, it took me a year before I could change my social identity. It was an isolating experience trying to let go of your existing friends and make new ones. This helped me understand why many of my friends could not transition out but rather took up smoking, etc. to conform to the group norms.

My grade 12 was spent with new friends with whom I resonated more and were not necessarily societal definition of “cool kids”. Yet, I was more fulfilled by living a more examined life.

Reflective living is a muscle I am still working on. I have passed on the learnings to the friends whom I have seen conform and this post is in another attempt.

]]>https://jawwad.me/conform/feed/31561How Fear Made Me Almost Betray a Friendhttps://jawwad.me/betrayed-a-friend/
https://jawwad.me/betrayed-a-friend/#commentsSat, 16 Aug 2014 14:25:19 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1547Summary: Fear makes us react automatically in extreme situations. It is insightful to understand how this wiring can affect our everyday decision making. My first job was at a coffee shop in the neighboring city. I was so excited for my first job that I did not mind the 50 minute commute each way. Unfortunately, there was no local bus that would drop me directly in-front of my workplace. Thus, I would catch a bus from near my house and sit on it till its very last station. From here I would walk approximately 1.5 kilometers to the bakery. Sometimes, when bus arrived early, I would walk around the station to kill a few minutes. The bus was busy upon boarding, however, as it drove closer to its very last station it people left one by one. Usually I was the only person on it when the it stopped in its last station. Given this ritual of mine, over a few months, the bus driver and I became acquainted. After, I got off the bus he would lock the bus and take a 15 minute snack break before resuming. He soon realized that I would sit out in hot weather after […]

Summary: Fear makes us react automatically in extreme situations. It is insightful to understand how this wiring can affect our everyday decision making.

My first job was at a coffee shop in the neighboring city. I was so excited for my first job that I did not mind the 50 minute commute each way.

Unfortunately, there was no local bus that would drop me directly in-front of my workplace. Thus, I would catch a bus from near my house and sit on it till its very last station. From here I would walk approximately 1.5 kilometers to the bakery. Sometimes, when bus arrived early, I would walk around the station to kill a few minutes.

The bus was busy upon boarding, however, as it drove closer to its very last station it people left one by one. Usually I was the only person on it when the it stopped in its last station.

Given this ritual of mine, over a few months, the bus driver and I became acquainted. After, I got off the bus he would lock the bus and take a 15 minute snack break before resuming. He soon realized that I would sit out in hot weather after departing the bus, thus, he allowed me to stay inside the bus while he went for his break.

Sitting inside the bus with air-conditioning was pleasant. When the bus driver returned, I would hop off and begin walking to the coffee shop.

However, on a very regular day, while waiting alone in the bus for the driver to come back from his break, I noticed a tall strong man hovering around the bus a few times.

Before I could understand the situation, he shoved his had through the bus door and through the rubber between the doors. He then pushed open the door manually.

The bus did not feel so big once he was inside the bus. He stood in-front while I sat in the back frozen in fright.

“You did not see anything. Okay!?”, said the man aggressively.

Before I could even process my response, “Yes! I understand. Don’t Worry” spat out of my mouth.

For next, few minutes he shoved around the bus driver’s seat to find something valuable. I was too frightened to observe the act, thus, I looked away out the window.

He never asked me to hand over my valuables, and quickly left the bus within few minutes.

I just sat there stiffly trying to articulate what had happened until the driver returned.

Did he just steal something of the bus driver? Should I tell the bus driver? Is he watching me? Will he follow me to the coffee shop?

The bus driver returned and I left the bus to walk to my coffee shop quietly.

The whole night, I could barely sleep. The thought of betraying a friend who provided me with shelter in his bus haunted me.

You may say that I could have reacted differently to ensure my bus driver friend’s safety. However, I am very thankful that no one was hurt because the next day I greeted the same bus driver and was relieved to see the same smile on his face

Lessons Learned:

We are designed to react automatically in fear. (i-e my reply to the man)

]]>https://jawwad.me/betrayed-a-friend/feed/11547Learnings from Getting Arrestedhttps://jawwad.me/getting-arrested/
https://jawwad.me/getting-arrested/#commentsSat, 19 Jul 2014 14:32:09 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1538Its was almost 12:45am and I came back home from a late work shift. I stood outside the entrance door and reached into my pocket for the keys. I could not find them. I took off my backup and searched inside. Still, they were no where to be found. Instead of ringing the buzzer to get the entrance door opened by whoever was home, I decided to avoid the embarrassment of having lost my keys and find my own way inside. There was a fire-exit at the back of my building where people usually stuck something in the door to keep it open and smoked all kinds of stuff there. Thus, I went all the way around the building to this door that was going to save the day. I slipped my fingers into the crack and tried opening the door. Bummer, it was closed. So, thinking I was superman, I continued to get a kick out of it by savagely trying to open it. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I see a cop car accelerate from across the street onto the foot-path and into the park and stopping literally an inch beside me. The tires were covered with grass […]

]]>https://jawwad.me/getting-arrested/feed/11538The Secret Reason Why He Kept Stealinghttps://jawwad.me/reason-stealing/
https://jawwad.me/reason-stealing/#respondSat, 05 Jul 2014 14:03:25 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1512It was a busy Saturday. I saw him take out cash – about $80 – from the register and shove it under his belt buckle. On the side he had the receipt for that $80 dollar purchase. Few minutes after he would walk about and hide the cash somewhere. Afterwards, he would “return” the purchase with the receipt in the system and eliminate any traceback. Who knows how long he had been doing it for but it was certainly terrifying to witness a crime. Being an avid reader of batman comics, I noticed that every criminal had an inner-motivation to do bad things. For example, electro just wanted to steal money to fix himself. Of Course, I tried to be batman and save the day but I did nothing other than run away… Ironically, later that day I was told that he is the same person who will be training me for next 7 days. Fast forwarding, on the 6th day after we become good friends. I asked him why he was doing it and BAM…. “I have been working here for 15+ years! They don’t give me a raise, took away my benefits … I deserve this” That day […]

]]>It was a busy Saturday. I saw him take out cash – about $80 – from the register and shove it under his belt buckle.

On the side he had the receipt for that $80 dollar purchase.

Few minutes after he would walk about and hide the cash somewhere.

Afterwards, he would “return” the purchase with the receipt in the system and eliminate any traceback.

Who knows how long he had been doing it for but it was certainly terrifying to witness a crime.

Being an avid reader of batman comics, I noticed that every criminal had an inner-motivation to do bad things. For example, electro just wanted to steal money to fix himself.

Of Course, I tried to be batman and save the day but I did nothing other than run away…

Ironically, later that day I was told that he is the same person who will be training me for next 7 days.

Fast forwarding, on the 6th day after we become good friends. I asked him why he was doing it and BAM….

“I have been working here for 15+ years! They don’t give me a raise, took away my benefits … I deserve this”

That day I truly realized the power of inner-motivations for good and evil.

Hitler (evil) vs Nikola Tesla (good). Hitler’s inner-motivation led him to do acts that stained humanity forever. Tesla’s inner-motivation led him to do acts so outstanding that scientists are still catching up to his advanced theories.

Its fascinating the stories we tell ourselves to justify the acts we do. Its equally scary how criminals (kill and steal) telling themselves similar stories. Luckily, there are people with noble intentions as well to make the world work.

]]>https://jawwad.me/reason-stealing/feed/01512What I learned from Greedy Bankershttps://jawwad.me/money-happiness/
https://jawwad.me/money-happiness/#respondSat, 28 Jun 2014 21:43:03 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1506How was it that a investment advisor making $400,000+/year was pulling his hair out to make more money? That was my boss at a bank. First, I thought he must really be in a bad financial situation. But, a week after, he bought a mercedes. I kept thinking why could he be so stressed. Smoking 4 times/day. Fake smile for his clients. Then, during lunch time it finally hit me. Deeper Meaning with Work These were the questions flying across the lunch table between various investment advisors – “How many clients did you get today?”, “Where are you going for vacation?”, “How is your new mercedes?”, and “How can we make more money?”. At some point these investment advisors turned self-improvement into a game. Instead of staying true to why they become investment advisors they began competing for points. Two month’s into the internship, I resigned. This experience made me realize why more money does not usually lead to more happiness. If your income just becomes a comparing metric, then it carries no soul. People begin damaging their health (coffee, smoking etc) in order to win. People start cutting corners (can’t tell what my boss did) and do things just […]

]]>How was it that a investment advisor making $400,000+/year was pulling his hair out to make more money?

That was my boss at a bank.

First, I thought he must really be in a bad financial situation. But, a week after, he bought a mercedes.

I kept thinking why could he be so stressed. Smoking 4 times/day. Fake smile for his clients.

Then, during lunch time it finally hit me.

Deeper Meaning with Work

These were the questions flying across the lunch table between various investment advisors – “How many clients did you get today?”, “Where are you going for vacation?”, “How is your new mercedes?”, and “How can we make more money?”.

At some point these investment advisors turned self-improvement into a game. Instead of staying true to why they become investment advisors they began competing for points.

Two month’s into the internship, I resigned.

This experience made me realize why more money does not usually lead to more happiness. If your income just becomes a comparing metric, then it carries no soul. People begin damaging their health (coffee, smoking etc) in order to win.

People start cutting corners (can’t tell what my boss did) and do things just to show off (mercedes?).

The same is true for all aspects of our lives – we compete for popularity on fb without having real friends or getting high grades without knowing what we want to study etc.

]]>https://jawwad.me/money-happiness/feed/01506Coming Back From Personal Setbackshttps://jawwad.me/coming-back-from-setbacks/
https://jawwad.me/coming-back-from-setbacks/#commentsSat, 21 Jun 2014 13:37:32 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1501At age 14, my family and I packed our bags and traveled across the globe from South Asia to North America. Left behind were my childhood friends, memories, spiderman toys, bike, school …. just to name a few. Thus, coming to Canada brought along its setbacks: losing my friends, new culture, new language, new school, new bullies, and family struggle to settle. What depressed me further was that I did not have the choice to quit. I had to learn fluent english, face bullies, adjust to canadian culture, transition, and make new friends. I would have quit if I had the option to. However, having to go struggle through setbacks taught me the following lessons. The Struggle in Setbacks Upon looking closer, I found the following things common in the setbacks; Ideal Expectation – In the plane I dreamt of how great Canada would be! Just like how a couple dreams about their journey ahead or a parents about their kids future. However, life is not as pleasant as we dream it up to be. Thus, this delusion was of great discouragement to me. Once we accept the ups and downs it becomes more pleasant than just thinking about […]

]]>At age 14, my family and I packed our bags and traveled across the globe from South Asia to North America.

Left behind were my childhood friends, memories, spiderman toys, bike, school …. just to name a few.

Thus, coming to Canada brought along its setbacks: losing my friends, new culture, new language, new school, new bullies, and family struggle to settle.

What depressed me further was that I did not have the choice to quit. I had to learn fluent english, face bullies, adjust to canadian culture, transition, and make new friends.

I would have quit if I had the option to. However, having to go struggle through setbacks taught me the following lessons.

The Struggle in Setbacks

Upon looking closer, I found the following things common in the setbacks;

Ideal Expectation – In the plane I dreamt of how great Canada would be! Just like how a couple dreams about their journey ahead or a parents about their kids future. However, life is not as pleasant as we dream it up to be. Thus, this delusion was of great discouragement to me. Once we accept the ups and downs it becomes more pleasant than just thinking about ups and dreading downs.

Not in Control – I kept blaming external things – people, teachers, Canada etc for my problems. But that did nothing to address my problems. They are “my problems” after all, and I should take responsibility for them.

Trying Shortcuts – I recall learning new slang, cheating on tests, and sharing candy to make friends but it did nothing. Somethings just take time to materialize.

Lessons Learned

For future, setbacks I hope to have the following lessons in mind;

Accept Reality – All of our dreams and ideals are of a struggle free life. For example, we don’t dream about our loved ones dying but they will. By accepting, we can live a more meaningful life than a life full of disappointments.

Visualize End Result – If I could only visualize the end goal, I may have not struggled as much.

Find People Like Yourself – There are 7B+ humans on planet earth and many of them share the same struggle as you. I used to find other new immigrants in my school or libraries to push through it together. It was FUN!

Stick to Your Inner Child – Often in stress we change ourselves dramatically. Despite all the stress, I still found time to read spider man comics and manga (two of my childhood things). This helped me keep sane.

These lessons together slowly got be from D- to A-, no friends to friends, little english to english, no job to job …… and still some things that I am working towards.

]]>https://jawwad.me/coming-back-from-setbacks/feed/51501What Kids can teach Adultshttps://jawwad.me/what-kids-can-teach-adults/
https://jawwad.me/what-kids-can-teach-adults/#commentsSat, 14 Jun 2014 11:57:17 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1496When I was 2 years old, I got malaria, typhoid and pneumonia attack simultaneously while visiting Pakistan. I was hospitalized for 4+ months and almost paralyzed. At one point, doctor told my mother that medicines can only do so much and rest is up to God. I did recover but temporarily forgot how to walk, talk, and eat (poop too). As a result, I was a year behind in school and a very skinny kid – an easy target for bullies. My mother explains me as helpless as a newborn child. To date, she thanks god for giving her child another life. Since, I do not remember my struggle, I wanted to know how I was able to pull through it. That is, have the hope and courage to learn to walk, talk, eat and poop all over again. I am not certain if an adult, including myself, would be able to pull through it. Adults would give up after logically thinking through how much this task demands. However, having a newborn niece at home and watching her gradually learn to crawl, walk, and talk gave me the chance to self-reflect and extract some learnings. As grownups we begin to […]

]]>https://jawwad.me/what-kids-can-teach-adults/feed/21496Why You Just Got Distractedhttps://jawwad.me/why-you-just-got-distracted/
https://jawwad.me/why-you-just-got-distracted/#commentsSat, 31 May 2014 11:44:45 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1493Summary: Distractions facilitate procrastination. What is your guilty pleasure? Just Got distracted, didn’t you? Are you suppose to be here? Recently, as work got more stressful, I began procrastinating more. Thus, I tried to self-reflect and fix it. I thought it was because I expected work to be easy and predictable. I was wrong. I missed the flip side of procrastination. Distractions. Distraction is you reading this blog in midst of doing something else. Its the facebook tab open, mobile phone within your reach, videos games, TV or any other guilty pleasure. For me it was reading online blogs, comic books, and tuning my bike. Because my work was stressful, these distractions were comfortable and easy. I was good at them (especially batman comic series). I did not have to fear them for failing or uncertainty. Do you find yourself a victim of distractions for school work? I do too. There is nothing wrong in indulging in these activities as long as they don’t occur in midst of your work. Because at that time your mind is just trying to escape from doing hard but rewarding work. Would you rather enjoy quick but temporary gains of distractions or long term reward of […]

]]>https://jawwad.me/why-you-just-got-distracted/feed/11493Allocating Time to Taskshttps://jawwad.me/time-to-tasks/
https://jawwad.me/time-to-tasks/#commentsSat, 24 May 2014 13:58:53 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1477Summary: Work occupies the time it is allocated. Are you guilty of “pulling all nighters” and allocating many days to prepare for an exam? If so, it is note-worthy how a task always takes up it’s allocated time (if not more). During highschool, I would rush through my homework prior to going to my job … it was not of best quality but it taught me something valuable about the concept of time. On job days, I would come back home from school knowing that I had only 2 hours to finish all my homework prior to my work shift. Surprisingly, the homework occupied the time it was allocated. Less time resulted in more creativity. I recall taking my essay to job so I can proof-read during lunch break, posting my questions online so by the time I returned someone had answered them, & going for extra help during school’s lunch break. On no job days, I would come back home from school knowing that I had about 6+ hours to finish my homework before bedtime. Surprisingly, the homework took longer. I would finish 10% of it and then take a break (procrastination). Rarely any creativity emerged. Result: Grades & Performance on “job days” > Grades & […]

Are you guilty of “pulling all nighters” and allocating many days to prepare for an exam?

If so, it is note-worthy how a task always takes up it’s allocated time (if not more).

During highschool, I would rush through my homework prior to going to my job … it was not of best quality but it taught me something valuable about the concept of time.

On job days, I would come back home from school knowing that I had only 2 hours to finish all my homework prior to my work shift. Surprisingly, the homework occupied the time it was allocated.

Less time resulted in more creativity. I recall taking my essay to job so I can proof-read during lunch break, posting my questions online so by the time I returned someone had answered them, & going for extra help during school’s lunch break.

On no job days, I would come back home from school knowing that I had about 6+ hours to finish my homework before bedtime. Surprisingly, the homework took longer. I would finish 10% of it and then take a break (procrastination). Rarely any creativity emerged.

]]>https://jawwad.me/time-to-tasks/feed/614775 “Ideals” that are Influencing Youhttps://jawwad.me/everyday-ideals/
https://jawwad.me/everyday-ideals/#commentsSat, 10 May 2014 14:24:51 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1467Summary: Our daily decision making, thoughts, and emotions are somehow derived from these very everyday ideals. Its like a dictionary in your mind who’s definition you have to read or define. You most likely think that you are unique. Better yet, not the status quo or average. You live day-to-day thinking that you know why and how you make decisions and feel about them. However, after the last post on ideal of procrastination, I began to make a list of other ideals that influence my life. To my surprise, almost every aspect of our lives are dictated by ideals. Categories of Ideals that Influence Us Beauty: Studies after studies have proven that men and women are attracted to partners with the most “golden ratio”. Despite of what we might like to believe, we are attracted to a very specific kind of physical beauty. Furthermore, we each define beauty differently. It could be physical, social, or emotional. Work: We expect work to be easy yet rewarding. We dislike being given vague instructions but yet we want to become leaders. We dislike excessive work yet we want to be promoted. Happiness: We seem to use it in everyday conversations but yet do not […]

Summary: Our daily decision making, thoughts, and emotions are somehow derived from these very everyday ideals. Its like a dictionary in your mind who’s definition you have to read or define.

You most likely think that you are unique. Better yet, not the status quo or average.

You live day-to-day thinking that you know why and how you make decisions and feel about them.

However, after the last post on ideal of procrastination, I began to make a list of other ideals that influence my life.

To my surprise, almost every aspect of our lives are dictated by ideals.

Categories of Ideals that Influence Us

Beauty: Studies after studies have proven that men and women are attracted to partners with the most “golden ratio”. Despite of what we might like to believe, we are attracted to a very specific kind of physical beauty. Furthermore, we each define beauty differently. It could be physical, social, or emotional.

Work: We expect work to be easy yet rewarding. We dislike being given vague instructions but yet we want to become leaders. We dislike excessive work yet we want to be promoted.

Happiness: We seem to use it in everyday conversations but yet do not have a concrete definition for it. Is it really the happiest day of your life?

Success: We aim to be successful in our lives but yet do not know what that truly means. Financial, family, social or professional success?

Love: “I love you”. What does that truly mean? What do you try to express when you say that? Is it to a friend, family, or a loved one? What do you expect in return for “love”?

The above list is not exhaustive but rather contemplative.

Our daily decision making, thoughts, and emotions are somehow derived from these very ideals. Its like a dictionary in your mind who’s definition you have to read or define.

Lessons Learned

Going forward, I aim to be more self-aware of such ideals. Doing so will help one communicate with oneself clearly and minimize biases in daily decision making.

]]>https://jawwad.me/everyday-ideals/feed/81467Time-Tested Cure for Procrastinationhttps://jawwad.me/cure-for-procrastination/
https://jawwad.me/cure-for-procrastination/#commentsMon, 05 May 2014 11:50:25 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1464Summary: Overcoming one’s preconceived ideal is the cure for procrastination prior to goal setting. In my quest to overcome procrastination, I came across content that mostly focused on goal setting. Content like “Set this goal and do this to overcome procrastination!” However, even after implementing these goal setting strategies, I still found myself procrastinating. Why was it so central to me? What’s causing it? I realized that despite having goals to meet my mind still looped in fear. Fear of failing and fear of difficult or confusing task. I realized the root problem was having a preconceived ideal. Ideal that we will be successful, work will be comfortable, and we will know what we are doing. For example, lets talk about Cindy. She is a banker turned into full-time entrepreneur. However, she finds herself truly paralyzed with the uncertainty of running a business. Lessons Learned How can she overcome the ideal? Just let it go and accept uncertainty. Life is not designed to be lived easily. How else will hard work be rewarded? Life is not meant to be lived in one’s comfort zone. How else will one grow? You are not suppose to know what lies ahead. How else would we go […]

In my quest to overcome procrastination, I came across content that mostly focused on goal setting.

Content like “Set this goal and do this to overcome procrastination!”

However, even after implementing these goal setting strategies, I still found myself procrastinating.

Why was it so central to me? What’s causing it?

I realized that despite having goals to meet my mind still looped in fear. Fear of failing and fear of difficult or confusing task.

I realized the root problem was having a preconceived ideal. Ideal that we will be successful, work will be comfortable, and we will know what we are doing.

For example, lets talk about Cindy. She is a banker turned into full-time entrepreneur. However, she finds herself truly paralyzed with the uncertainty of running a business.

Lessons Learned

How can she overcome the ideal?

Just let it go and accept uncertainty. Life is not designed to be lived easily. How else will hard work be rewarded? Life is not meant to be lived in one’s comfort zone. How else will one grow? You are not suppose to know what lies ahead. How else would we go on adventures?

Once we accept that its is our ideal that holds us back we can slowly begin to nurture our brains to start thinking so.

Overcoming one’s preconceived ideal is the cure for procrastination prior to goal setting.

]]>https://jawwad.me/cure-for-procrastination/feed/71464How to Stop Constant Worryhttps://jawwad.me/it-will-be-ok/
https://jawwad.me/it-will-be-ok/#commentsSun, 27 Apr 2014 02:34:58 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1460Despite all your worries, life will be OK. You are walking down the street and to your exam; worried about what will be on it. You are nervous if the chapter you skipped will be on the exam. Upon passing your friends and neighbors, the brief forced smile does not help either. After the exam, you are worried about your final grade, GPA, and even admission to graduate school. Aside school, you worry about personal life. How you do, how you compare to others, and things that you miss out on. Do not worry. You are not alone. The strangers you passed in that walk to the exam, they had the same worries. Lessons Learned Despite all these worries, your life will be OK. We are hardwired to worry about things – a survival instinct. Thus, we worry about what might go wrong – the bad outcomes only. These bad outcomes are very unlikely to come true. Even if they do, you will be OK. Here is a test. Write down the things you were worried about in the past. School? Love life? Career? Savings? Now, in all of those cases what happened? It turned out fine. The world did […]

You are walking down the street and to your exam; worried about what will be on it.

You are nervous if the chapter you skipped will be on the exam. Upon passing your friends and neighbors, the brief forced smile does not help either.

After the exam, you are worried about your final grade, GPA, and even admission to graduate school.

Aside school, you worry about personal life. How you do, how you compare to others, and things that you miss out on.

Do not worry. You are not alone.

The strangers you passed in that walk to the exam, they had the same worries.

Lessons Learned

Despite all these worries, your life will be OK.

We are hardwired to worry about things – a survival instinct. Thus, we worry about what might go wrong – the bad outcomes only.

These bad outcomes are very unlikely to come true.

Even if they do, you will be OK.

Here is a test. Write down the things you were worried about in the past. School? Love life? Career? Savings? Now, in all of those cases what happened? It turned out fine. The world did not stop spinning.

If one can acknowledge the role of worry, they can consciously let go of the worry state. One can begin to appreciate worry in a way that it doesn’t cripple you.

This way you can walk down the street with an infectious smile on your face, shoulders tucked high, and brain focused on NOW.

]]>https://jawwad.me/it-will-be-ok/feed/41460Honest Self-Evaluationhttps://jawwad.me/grade-yourself/
https://jawwad.me/grade-yourself/#commentsSat, 19 Apr 2014 14:21:49 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1454Summary: We all get an academic report (which we always overestimate) but what about our personal report card – health, goals, and relationships? Remember the last time you felt good about writing an exam and walked out with your big smiley face? 😀 Fast forward to exam results. Bummer. You find out that you got much MUCH lower than expected! :'( Well, that is something that just happened to me. Then I had the choice of doing one of two things: blame something external (exam was too hard or everybody failed) or begin working on your weaknesses. That was a reality check of how I was doing academically. Reflections of Achieving a Low Academic Grade This experience got me thinking about two key-takeaways; We have biased and vague self-evaluations We don’t like to know that we did poorly on something Now, what about my personal progress? Who gives you that reality check – the ugly truth? What if my personal progress report is much lower than what I think it is as well? Sure, you can say you do or your parents are “proud” of you. But do the above two key takeaways apply here too? Yes. Let’s say you are writing […]

Reflections of Achieving a Low Academic Grade

Now, what about my personal progress? Who gives you that reality check – the ugly truth?

What if my personal progress report is much lower than what I think it is as well?

Sure, you can say you do or your parents are “proud” of you. But do the above two key takeaways apply here too?

Yes.

Let’s say you are writing a book. Perhaps you are tracking how many pages you have written. You have a vague sense of progress. However, you have no standard to compare yourself with.

Am I an A+ or B- or D-?

If you had a personal coach and he graded you, how would you do?

It is in one’s comfort zone to avoid grading oneself. Who wants the disappointment of knowing that their progress has been bad?

However, is the temporary disappointment of honest self-evaluation worse than experiencing a project failure?

I have set vague goals and still do at times. It is our tendency to write down something in our To-Do list or calendar but rarely do we grade ourselves on it. However, in addition to our GPA, we can begin to grade ourselves to be assured that our dreams and aspirations will materialize.

]]>https://jawwad.me/grade-yourself/feed/81454I am not perfect (Are You?)https://jawwad.me/not-perfect/
https://jawwad.me/not-perfect/#respondSat, 12 Apr 2014 14:47:03 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1445Summary: We should not try so hard to just make our lives seem perfect via social media and marketing media. Instead, we should embrace our imperfections and vulnerabilities and try to begin working on them. Just like how we did with racism and gender equality. After making a mistake, do you cover it up by saying it meant nothing to you? I am not perfect. How many times have you given up on something or someone in the fear of embarrassing yourself? The tweets, facebook pictures, or instagrams. Do they really paint your true picture? Do you prefer texting over phone call? Phone call over skype? Many people ask me why I am not very active on social media – twitter, facebook etc. I think that social media lacks the very essence of what makes us human – vulnerabilities and imperfections. Many on twitter and facebook don’t like making themselves vulnerable. They only post their best (photoshopped) pictures. Share stories that they know the “society” will like. Social media becomes the mask to cover imperfections and our vulnerabilities. We all know how marketing media tries to portray an average person’s life – something far from reality. However, the truth is that everyone […]

Summary: We should not try so hard to just make our lives seem perfect via social media and marketing media. Instead, we should embrace our imperfections and vulnerabilities and try to begin working on them. Just like how we did with racism and gender equality.

After making a mistake, do you cover it up by saying it meant nothing to you? I am not perfect.

How many times have you given up on something or someone in the fear of embarrassing yourself?

The tweets, facebook pictures, or instagrams. Do they really paint your true picture?

Many people ask me why I am not very active on social media – twitter, facebook etc. I think that social media lacks the very essence of what makes us human – vulnerabilities and imperfections.

Many on twitter and facebook don’t like making themselves vulnerable. They only post their best (photoshopped) pictures. Share stories that they know the “society” will like.

Social media becomes the mask to cover imperfections and our vulnerabilities. We all know how marketing media tries to portray an average person’s life – something far from reality.

However, the truth is that everyone in so called “society” is made up of imperfections and vulnerabilities.

Imagine the day each of us lets go of this mask and communicates our true selves? Without a doubt, gradually others will follow.

Society as a whole will embrace imperfections and vulnerabilities.

It is okay to feel overweight, have self-doubt, feel lonely, nervous, stressed, self-conscious or other humanly acts.

As the saying goes, “Its not that the hero and coward feel different. They feel the same way. its how they respond that makes the different” – Anonymous.

For example, people assume that because I write self-improvement posts I have no imperfections or vulnerabilities.

I do. I always will and so did Einstein, Prophets, and rest of humanity.

We can never get rid of them but we can begin to more openly embrace them. Just like how we embraced racial and gender difference.

Society should not try hard to make it seem that their lives are perfect – social media and marketing media. Instead, we should embrace our imperfections and vulnerabilities and try hard to begin working on them.

One cannot help but imagine the emotional impact of such phenomenon on the humanity as a whole.

Test: Your best friendships are formed on basis of vulnerability and imperfection. You help aid each others problems and grow together.

]]>https://jawwad.me/not-perfect/feed/01445How to Listen to Your Emotionshttps://jawwad.me/action-signals/
https://jawwad.me/action-signals/#commentsSat, 05 Apr 2014 16:19:37 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1429Summary: Emotions, feelings, or thoughts are action signals. They are signalling you to do something about them. Do you tend to have a lot of things to think about? Do you daydream? Do certain thoughts keep looping and coming back? If so, how many times do you address these thoughts? Do you step back and articulate them? For example, you may be “worried” about an upcoming exam, interview, or a customer meeting. Maybe, you find yourself daydreaming about the past or future. Above statement describes my average day about seven months ago. (still working on it) Worry about school, startup, client meeting and other goals. But “worry” or daydreaming was a symptom of a bigger problem. I was letting vague words such as worry, daydreaming, and thinking distract me from getting to the root of the problem. Then came my AHA! moment; All of these emotions, thoughts or worries are ONLY action signals. They are trying to “signal” you to take action. Are you “worried” about a goal? Maybe its because you are not measuring your progress, thus, your brain has no idea! If you are thinking a lot, distracted easily by thoughts, daydreaming, or worried your brain is screaming “HELP […]

Articulating and building upon action signals will give you clarity and focus to work towards those dreams instead of just daydreaming about them.

It is no surprise that the greatest scientists had their “Aha!” moments after countless writings and not just thinking.

Likewise, great artists create beautiful pictures not because they know what exactly to draw, but they act on the action signal. The signal to create not knowing every granular details – depth, color, breadth etc (See pic below).

Imagine if you acted upon all of your action signals (thoughts)? Would you still find yourself thinking as much?

Lastly, from personal experience, there is an optimal level of thinking. Too little = bad and Too much = bad. Articulating my thoughts with a pen or a paper puts prevents me from over and under thinking.

Thinking(Mind) + Articulating (Hand/Pen) = Aha Moment! (Action Step)

Words articulated into a meaningful picture. Now try imagining the words dispersed all over?

Picture Credit: My good friend.

Lessons Learned

Emotions and thoughts are action signals. They are trying to tell you something.

It is upto you to take action based on the action signals.

Your brain is a thinking machine (subconscious). You need to consciously articulate those thoughts.

Do not let your brain fool you with “worry” or other vague emotions that can cloud your mind.

]]>https://jawwad.me/action-signals/feed/61429How to Stop Complaininghttps://jawwad.me/that-totally-sucks/
https://jawwad.me/that-totally-sucks/#commentsSat, 29 Mar 2014 17:07:54 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1419Summary: Any attitude where you blame something external is the main problem. Only YOU should control all things related to work, life, and people. Don’t like mondays? Make your life more exciting. Have you ever heard someone say; “OMG! Dude I hate Mondays!” What about; “WTF! That is such a hard problem to solve! Impossible!” These type of attitudes have found their way into our everyday conversations. On the surface they may seem pretty harmless, however, when you agree with them it may subconsciously enforce bad behavior in you. Other person: “Ah! I hate Mondays mornings” You:“Yeah! I know what you mean!” Noticed what happened there? You completely let the negative things affect your mindset or vice-versa. Such thoughts make you blame external things such as mondays, bosses, norms, and people. Key-Takeaways for Self-Improvement 1. Notice all the negative patterns of behaviour that you or your colleagues may have. 2. Any attitude where you blame something external is the main problem. Only YOU should control all things related to work, life, and people. Don’t like mondays? Make your life more exciting or get a better job. 3. Don’t let everyday conversations slowly slip into your mindset. Help your colleagues realize the […]

Such thoughts make you blame external things such as mondays, bosses, norms, and people.

Key-Takeaways for Self-Improvement

1. Notice all the negative patterns of behaviour that you or your colleagues may have.

2. Any attitude where you blame something external is the main problem. Only YOU should control all things related to work, life, and people. Don’t like mondays? Make your life more exciting or get a better job.

]]>https://jawwad.me/that-totally-sucks/feed/31419Fail to Succeedhttps://jawwad.me/fail-to-succeed/
https://jawwad.me/fail-to-succeed/#respondSat, 01 Mar 2014 14:43:13 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1416 Summary: As kids, we fail to succeed. As adults, we fail to fail. Not very long ago, I dreaded fear. I still do. Its hardwired into all of our brains. However, my thought process about fear has altered a little. Many of my friends are psychology nerds. Thanks to them, I have realized the following; As kids we fail to succeed. We break things, fall, talk gibberish, poop ourselves, run into walls, and copy others. Essentially, we keep failing until we succeed. There is no fear of failure. There is no fear of embarrassment. Don’t believe me? Look back at your baby pics…the one with food all over your face. As adults we fail to fail. There is fear of failure. There is fear of embarrassment. Thus, we fail to fail. We don’t try something new. We don’t speak up in fear of embarrassment. We don’t push ourselves to try new things and fail. Food for thought Imagine if you applied the same principle of “failing to succeed” throughout your life. Where will you be? I truly believe that this thought process can help us turn our dreams into realities.

]]>https://jawwad.me/fail-to-succeed/feed/01416Why Persistence Pays Offhttps://jawwad.me/why-persistence-pays-off/
https://jawwad.me/why-persistence-pays-off/#commentsSat, 22 Feb 2014 13:52:13 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1409Summary: Persisting at something allows you to learn things that you would not have otherwise. The negotiation experience for a 1% grade increase taught me a very valuable lesson in regards to why persistence pays off. We have all been told to persist by why exactly should we persist? Its like telling a child to do something without him understanding why he should. Persisting at something allows you to learn things that you would not have otherwise. In my case, my first appeal with the guidance counselor was very weak, thus, she said No. Knowing her objections, I addressed those in my next appeal to my teacher. It was still too weak and I got rejected. Knowing the teacher’s and counsellor’s objection, I articulated a stronger appeal and went to the department head. It was still too weak and I got rejected. Long story short, about time I went to the principal’s office I had gotten 4 no’s and knew their objections. I incorporated all the learnings from all these “No’s” in my final appeal to the principal. The result was a YES! I would not have gotten a YES if I had not persisted and learned along the way. […]

]]>https://jawwad.me/why-persistence-pays-off/feed/61409Everything is Negotiablehttps://jawwad.me/everything-is-negotiable/
https://jawwad.me/everything-is-negotiable/#commentsSat, 15 Feb 2014 23:29:19 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1401Truth be told, I did not have the grades to get the scholarship I currently have. I fell short by 1% in one of my required courses, english. Not receiving that scholarship meant I could no longer afford my education at Queen’s. I worked quite hard to get admitted to Queen’s – while working part-time. As an immigrant, education was the only tool I had to improve my family’s living standards. The frustrating part was that I missed by 1%. A simple human error could have accounted for that. After all, grading is only an estimate of a person’s understanding. Its far from perfect. Upon consulting with the academic counselor, I was given two options; Go to an alternative University Repeat the course during summer and re-apply for scholarship First choice was not an option as education from my preferred university was my top priority. Second choice was not an option as I wanted to work full-time during summer to help pay the bills at home. Thus, I had to find another way or forget about Queen’s. I went knocking on my teacher’s door. “Miss, what can I do to get a 1% increase in my grade?” When I tried to […]

]]>https://jawwad.me/everything-is-negotiable/feed/11401Do I have Ego?https://jawwad.me/do-i-have-ego/
https://jawwad.me/do-i-have-ego/#commentsSun, 09 Feb 2014 04:25:22 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1395“Do I have ego?”, I asked softly. It was a snowy Friday evening my mentor, John, and I were having a coffee chat. “How do you mean?”, said John who was an ex-psychologist. As I began to give a generic definition of ego, he stopped me promptly. “Ego is like the word “success”. It is a vague term that rarely anyone understands but most of us seem to use it including yourself”, said John with a smirk. “Before asking that question, your brain assumed that it understood “ego”. You see where I am going?”, he continued. I smiled in awe and took out my notepad. These are the insights he shared directly and indirectly. I realized how complex this topic was, thus, this by no means is exhaustive. How ego comes into play everyday; Hypocrisy: Inconsistency between the standards we have for ourselves vs. others. Memory: Forgetting info that does not support our thinking and memorizing info that does. Simplification: Brain’s natural tendency to ignore complex problems by quick explanations. For example, terrorism, wars etc. In-the-Moment: Tendency to emphasize current experiences as above or below all others. For example, “This is the best thing that ever happened to me!” […]

]]>https://jawwad.me/do-i-have-ego/feed/41395The Fault with “someday” To-Do Listhttps://jawwad.me/someday/
https://jawwad.me/someday/#commentsSat, 01 Feb 2014 21:03:29 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1389“Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. -Tim Ferris For all the very important things in life, the timing always seems to suck. Waiting for the perfect time to switch jobs? Waiting for “more experience” to start a company or write a book? Waiting for more time to go to the gym? Waiting until you graduate from university to do something? The stars will never align and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. “Someday” is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it “eventually,” just do it and correct course along the way. Credits: Timothy Ferris

]]>https://jawwad.me/someday/feed/213892014: Going Forwardhttps://jawwad.me/2014-going-forward/
https://jawwad.me/2014-going-forward/#commentsSun, 26 Jan 2014 00:20:12 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1303[quote]“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.” — Cavett Robert[/quote] From 2013: Looking Back and your feedback, I realized there are things that I can (always) improve on going into 2014. Blog Improvements Design & Code: As you many have already noticed, the site is re-designed. So you can enjoy reading instead of waiting it to load. Thanks for all the complaints and my apologies for the trouble. Blog Frequency: I plan to blog every Saturday morning. I realized that more I write, the better I am able to articulate stuff. eBooks: Publish the half completed eBooks that have been sitting on my local hard drive. These include learnings from startup failures and wisdom nuggets extracted from various everyday life experiences. On Going Improvements There will always be room for marginal improvement in everything that we do. I hope to achieve those via self-reflections. With the lessons learned from my mistakes, I hope to more critically evaluate the endeavours ahead. At the same time, I must not be afraid of making mistakes but rather find a way to profit from them. I look forward to sharing my lessons and insights from […]

]]>[quote]“Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.” — Cavett Robert[/quote]

From 2013: Looking Back and your feedback, I realized there are things that I can (always) improve on going into 2014.

Blog Improvements

Design & Code: As you many have already noticed, the site is re-designed. So you can enjoy reading instead of waiting it to load. Thanks for all the complaints and my apologies for the trouble.

Blog Frequency: I plan to blog every Saturday morning. I realized that more I write, the better I am able to articulate stuff.

eBooks: Publish the half completed eBooks that have been sitting on my local hard drive. These include learnings from startup failures and wisdom nuggets extracted from various everyday life experiences.

On Going Improvements

There will always be room for marginal improvement in everything that we do. I hope to achieve those via self-reflections.

]]>https://jawwad.me/2014-going-forward/feed/113032013 – Year in Review: Looking Backhttps://jawwad.me/2013-year-in-review-looking-back/
https://jawwad.me/2013-year-in-review-looking-back/#commentsSat, 28 Dec 2013 14:10:33 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1234A good teacher of mine told me that he would review his whole yearly journal on the last weekend of the year. He said that “It feels like replaying a year of your life. Isn’t that an interesting movie to watch?” I wanted to dedicate the last Saturday of 2013 to reflect on all our meaningful conversations that occurred during the year. I got to admit, the discussion and feedback from some of you made me realize some perspectives that I would not have otherwise. Here is a quick summary of the insights and experiences I shared with you; January – Reason Why You Won’t Be The Person You Wish To Be January – Your Wolf-Pack’s Influence and Association February – How do you view the World? February – Wealth of Wisdom from a trip to the Dentist Many – Have you ever thought about thinking while thinking? June – Are you letting stereotyping of school distort your thinking? July – What a chronic depression victim taught me about technology September – Why do I blog anyways? October – Mistakes that have taught me a life worth of lessons December – Why I want to be a Kid Again Below is the brief summary of the insights and experiences […]

]]>A good teacher of mine told me that he would review his whole yearly journal on the last weekend of the year. He said that “It feels like replaying a year of your life. Isn’t that an interesting movie to watch?”

I wanted to dedicate the last Saturday of 2013 to reflect on all our meaningful conversations that occurred during the year.

I got to admit, the discussion and feedback from some of you made me realize some perspectives that I would not have otherwise.

Here is a quick summary of the insights and experiences I shared with you;

Below is the brief summary of the insights and experiences you shared with me;

Researching too much is a form of procrastination

People are interested in stories and not just insights

We tend to open up to people who have gone through similar experiences

Why writing about something is the best way to articulate a solution

The first step is never easy but rest are much easier

Our biggest problems are created ourselves in our head

Its impossible to please everyone

There would be no successes without failures

Emotions are “action signals”. They must be acted upon and not ignored.

That teacher, Mr. Tim, had a profound impact on how I viewed time. The way he valued his time spent made me reconsider how to get most out of the time spent. His personality had a more profound impact on me than his academic teachings.

In the next post, I will share how I plan to make 2014 an even more insightful year for us!

Again, many thanks for your insights and discussion. We simply could not have learned these valuable lessons without each other’s insights

PS: Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year!

PPS: As always, I look forward to your feedback and insights regarding 2013!

]]>https://jawwad.me/2013-year-in-review-looking-back/feed/21234Why I want to be a kid againhttps://jawwad.me/why-i-want-to-be-a-kid-again/
https://jawwad.me/why-i-want-to-be-a-kid-again/#commentsFri, 13 Dec 2013 03:40:40 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1221The other day I was visiting the elementary school across my apartment. Upon leaving, I noticed the kids in class were just finishing putting their artwork away (mostly scribbles). I could not help but ask, “How many of you are great painters!?” BOOM! Hands went up like I asked was the candy man! “MeEEeeE!” “Me too!!” “Look at Mine!” “I AM too!” “Seee thissss!” “I AM THE BEST!” – Children’s Enthusiasm As I walked out and saw my university’s library within eye’s sight and wondered what would the reply be if I had asked a group of grown-ups (professors and students) the same question. Would I get the same answer? Kids did not care how good their friend’s work was or what I had to say about their work. On the other hand, I Imagine adults looking at each other and saying, “He is good. Not me!”. Barely any hands would go up. People will be nervous and uncomfortable. We are all creative believers as children but not as adults. What happens to us? Something happens. Remember when you were a kid? You made things up. Climbed a tree without knowing you could hurt yourself. You only cried when you got […]

As I walked out and saw my university’s library within eye’s sight and wondered what would the reply be if I had asked a group of grown-ups (professors and students) the same question.

Would I get the same answer?

Kids did not care how good their friend’s work was or what I had to say about their work. On the other hand, I Imagine adults looking at each other and saying, “He is good. Not me!”. Barely any hands would go up. People will be nervous and uncomfortable.

We are all creative believers as children but not as adults. What happens to us?

Something happens.

Remember when you were a kid? You made things up. Climbed a tree without knowing you could hurt yourself. You only cried when you got hurt and were smiling a second before.

As we grow up we begin to let fear, emotions, shyness, nervousness, rationality *insert all other excuses here* hold us back from tapping the inner-creativity that we were born with.

]]>https://jawwad.me/why-i-want-to-be-a-kid-again/feed/21221Mistakes I am Happy I Madehttps://jawwad.me/mistakes-made/
https://jawwad.me/mistakes-made/#commentsSat, 05 Oct 2013 06:43:16 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1208About 7 years ago, my 73 years old mathematics teacher who lived across my house in Saudi Arabia, shared a life lesson that I have yet to fully absorb. I remember clearly, it was a hot day (~39°C) and I was at the local tandoor (clay oven) ordering five freshly made bread with cheese. Back home, my family was awaiting my arrival on the dinner table. This was pretty much my ritual each day for lunch and dinner. I would jump into my slippers, speed walk to the tandoor, order my bread, put the fresh bread into my bag and speed walk back home. That day at the tandoor, I ran into my mathematics teacher, Sir Afzal. I was in Grade 8 at that time. We acknowledged each other’s presence and awaited our order. After a few minutes, Afzal filled his order and began walking back home. Given that I was leaving for Canada in a few days, I quickly grabbed my bread and caught up with him to say farewell. After a few back and forth comments, to end the conversation, I asked him “Sir Afzal, do you have any tips you want to share before I go off […]

]]>About 7 years ago, my 73 years old mathematics teacher who lived across my house in Saudi Arabia, shared a life lesson that I have yet to fully absorb.

I remember clearly, it was a hot day (~39°C) and I was at the local tandoor (clay oven) ordering five freshly made bread with cheese. Back home, my family was awaiting my arrival on the dinner table.

This was pretty much my ritual each day for lunch and dinner. I would jump into my slippers, speed walk to the tandoor, order my bread, put the fresh bread into my bag and speed walk back home.

That day at the tandoor, I ran into my mathematics teacher, Sir Afzal. I was in Grade 8 at that time. We acknowledged each other’s presence and awaited our order. After a few minutes, Afzal filled his order and began walking back home. Given that I was leaving for Canada in a few days, I quickly grabbed my bread and caught up with him to say farewell.

After a few back and forth comments, to end the conversation, I asked him “Sir Afzal, do you have any tips you want to share before I go off to Canada!”.

Sir Afzal paused, put his bread down, and as he reached into his pocket to find his house key, he said “I taught you that in Mathematics you are successful when you correctly solve for X with minimal mistakes. However, in real life you will fail many times before you really figure out your X. Mistakes will teach you more than any formal education. Look out for them as they are like hidden treasures of knowledge. And in the end, the value of your X will depend on how you passed those mistakes and failures”

Honestly, at that time, I did not know what he meant by but I noted it down because of the vibe he gave off.

Fast forward, after 7 years and making many mistakes, I can say that I have only begun to realize what he really meant. So often we hold ourselves back from achieving great things only because we are afraid of mistakes. Whether it be starting a business, writing a book, changing your career path, expressing your love to someone or being “realistic”. Risk and reward are correlated and life is too short to always live conservatively.

Mistakes and Lessons Learned

Below are the mistakes I have made and the respective lesson they taught me. Which ones resonate with you?

Afraid of Making Mistakes – Mistakes are like hidden treasures in life. Whenever they happen, acknowledge them and learn from them. Otherwise, you are just wasting time. I realized that I was afraid of making and accepting mistakes. I was afraid of facing the consequences and most importantly the embarrassment. Thankfully, my mentor made me realize that, “I will miss 100% of the shots I don’t take“. As long as you learn from your mistakes, it is okay to make them.

Being Lazy & Daydreaming – Daydreaming usually results in procrastination. We begin to daydream but yet not DO. Instead of daydreaming about doing it someday, start doing it today. There is a healthy level of daydreaming, but just like procrastination, it can easily get out of control. Don’t wait till tomorrow, do it today. Time is the most precious and finite commodity anyone can have, thus, use it very wisely.

Being a Perfectionist – The truth is that I held myself back for almost 6-months before starting this blog because I wanted to “perfect” it. However, the more I learned about successful people the more I realized that none of the were perfect. They definitely aimed to be perfect but realized that they will never be. Thus, they began their journey before they were ready.

Thinking that Ideal Past = Ideal Future – Life is beautiful because of its ups and downs. The shadows of the past cannot darken the door to your future. In fact, we grow stronger every time we fail. These failures gives us the chance and the ability to rebuild ourselves.

Getting Everyone’s Approval – So many times we give up what we really want due to the noise surrounding us. In school, we get bombarded with “specialization” and media forces us to follow the trends. However, the hardest prison to escape is the fear of what other people may think of you. If you want to be a web designer, then go for it regardless of what your peers or parents think of it. Don’t live someone else’s life. Invest in yourself and take time to talk to yourself, without external interference.

Focusing on Things I don’t Have – Your thoughts turn into actions and create outward momentum. Thus, if you focus on things you don’t have you effectively allow them to play a bigger role in your life. Don’t be anti-war, but rather a peace promoter. Don’t be anti-drugs, promote healthy well being. The more we focus on our problems (without focusing on the solution) the more we let them dictate our lives.

Limiting Thoughts – When we are kids we believe anything we can think of. I wanted to be spiderman when I grow up. The key lesson here is not what you think but how you think about it. As kids, we defined our own possibilities and when adults told us that we can’t do that we cried and rebelled until we “grew out of it”. We get so rational and conservative in our thinking that we merely become average.

Thinking that Humans Are Logical – What separates humans from computers is that we are driven by emotions, not logic. Entrepreneurs start companies because they believe they will win despite the statistics proving otherwise. Sadly, some people end their lives because their emotions tell them to do so. To really be able to enjoy life as a human being, be aware of your emotions and where they lead you.

Not Appreciating the World for What It Is – Unfortunately, there always will be hate, racism, murder, war etc. However, just like death, it is an inevitable part of humans. The media only highlights the negatives. There is more love, smiles, and gifts to be shared than the negatives, thus, focus on spreading these positives. After all, if you want to change the world you have to first accept it for what it is.

Being Around Negative People – Simply put, life is too short to be spent among people who do not share the same values as yourself. You will grow more by being around 10 like-minded driven friends than with 100 average friends. This was one of the toughest things for me. However, once you isolate yourself from people you don’t want to be around it gets easy to deviate towards who you do want to be around. As the saying goes, “You are the average of the five friends you spend the most time with”.

Letting society define “success” – For many years I defined “success” in terms of the society’s perspective. That is; get good grades, work hard, get a stable job, work your way up the ladder etc. However, the day I realized that definition of success is something more than that, my perspective changed. You cannot let imaginary standards of success guide your life. Have your own definition of success and strive for that.

Letting society define “happiness” – I am guilty of thinking that happiness follows success. There is so much noise that distorts the very definition of happiness. I thought that happiness was having enough money to buy materialistic things such as a lamborghini or a mansion etc. That is the image society and media try’s to paint. However, a mentor of mine made me realize that one will never be happy if he/she continues to define happiness according to external expectations. Happiness is truly from within – your thoughts and your view of happiness.

If you were to ask me what has tought me the most, the answer would be the list above.

Acceptable Mistakes and Being a Student of Failures

Lastly, this does not mean that one should make mistakes whenever possible. The best way to identify if you are making the right mistakes is to monitor your intentions. As long at it won’t end up intentionally hurting someone, you are fine.

In summary, mistakes are inevitable part of life. You will make them regardless of the fact if you acknowledge them. Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Farraday and countless other leaders made countless mistakes before they discovered something revolutionary.

How many times have you heard about personal failures of Einstein? Or Mark Zuckerberg breaching user’s privacy? Or about Thomas Edison’s experiments with electric chair? Success stories highlight and celebrate their successes, yet one can learn equally as much from their failures and mistakes. Many of these leaders themselves agree that mistakes were inevitable and they learned a ton from them.

Likewise, you and I will always be students. They say experience is the hardest teacher, first you get the test and then you learn the lesson. Similarly, throughout life we make inevitable mistakes. Thus, the question then becomes, do you have the courage to accept your mistakes? Do you have the wisdom to learn from your mistakes?

]]>https://jawwad.me/mistakes-made/feed/71208Why do I Write?https://jawwad.me/why-i-write/
https://jawwad.me/why-i-write/#respondThu, 12 Sep 2013 03:02:24 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=1184First and foremost, I don’t write with a rock-solid purpose in mind. Simply put, I don’t know what I don’t know. These are the reasons I continue to write; Self-Articulation: If I don’t write, I think I would go a little crazy. By doing so, I articulate the thoughts that form an endless loop in my mind. Help and Share with You: I am very happy that few other people benefit from what I write. Learn from Others: Am I here to preach my philosophy or view of life to the world, hoping to change it? No, I’m not trying to do that either. My hope is not to convert anyone who disagrees with me. Because if you do disagree, I can learn more from you than otherwise. World would be boring without our differences. Genius is a Collective Effort: In fact, every invention, innovation, science breakthrough or the nobel prize has been a result of collective human effort. Even Einstein cannot be credited for his theories alone. His theories built on decades of previous human thought.

]]>First and foremost, I don’t write with a rock-solid purpose in mind. Simply put, I don’t know what I don’t know.

These are the reasons I continue to write;

Self-Articulation: If I don’t write, I think I would go a little crazy. By doing so, I articulate the thoughts that form an endless loop in my mind.

Help and Share with You: I am very happy that few other people benefit from what I write.

Learn from Others: Am I here to preach my philosophy or view of life to the world, hoping to change it? No, I’m not trying to do that either. My hope is not to convert anyone who disagrees with me. Because if you do disagree, I can learn more from you than otherwise. World would be boring without our differences.

Genius is a Collective Effort: In fact, every invention, innovation, science breakthrough or the nobel prize has been a result of collective human effort. Even Einstein cannot be credited for his theories alone. His theories built on decades of previous human thought.

]]>https://jawwad.me/why-i-write/feed/01184Beware the Flawed Formula for Successhttps://jawwad.me/flawed-formula-for-success/
https://jawwad.me/flawed-formula-for-success/#commentsFri, 12 Jul 2013 19:29:40 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=992You most likely think this; “If I suffer and work hard today I will be more successful and when I am more successful only then I will be happy or happier.” Few examples of such mentality; Students – I must lock myself in my room and sacrifice social life for future gain and happiness. Employees – I must drag myself out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, and go to work hoping that today will be the day I get promoted. Youth – If I just force myself to the gym and loose 10 pounds, then ill be successful and happy. Entrepreneurs – I must socially isolate myself for the future success of my company. (stereotypical entrepreneur) However, that conventional wisdom is flawed and its not your fault nor mine. This is why. Our thinking has been shaped by: 1. The Negative Media It’s always about negative stuff because it sells – bad people, murder, drugs, gangs etc. It has tricked us into thinking that life is always a struggle, unless you are successful. 2. Misleading Motivational Content Most of the online motivational content is filled with quotes, videos and stories of stuff like “No pain. No gain.”, “Life is a pain, […]

]]>You most likely think this; “If I suffer and work hard today I will be more successful and when I am more successful only then I will be happy or happier.”

Few examples of such mentality;

Students – I must lock myself in my room and sacrifice social life for future gain and happiness.

Employees – I must drag myself out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, and go to work hoping that today will be the day I get promoted.

Youth – If I just force myself to the gym and loose 10 pounds, then ill be successful and happy.

Entrepreneurs – I must socially isolate myself for the future success of my company. (stereotypical entrepreneur)

However, that conventional wisdom is flawed and its not your fault nor mine.

This is why.

Our thinking has been shaped by:

1. The Negative Media

It’s always about negative stuff because it sells – bad people, murder, drugs, gangs etc. It has tricked us into thinking that life is always a struggle, unless you are successful.

2. Misleading Motivational Content

Most of the online motivational content is filled with quotes, videos and stories of stuff like “No pain. No gain.”, “Life is a pain, so work hard!”, “Struggle today for success tomorrow!” etc.Such content has tricked us into viewing the route to success as a painful chore.

3. “Happily ever After” Stories

Be very cautious of the success stories you read. Recall back to Grade 10 English, climax is part of a good plot. When people write their own stories, they overemphasize their struggle to build up the climax.

These three factors have tricked us into thinking that the route to success is an unpleasant struggle and only the destination holds the fruits of our labor.

However, the reality is that “Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. Happiness is not just the mood, it’s a work ethic. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work.” –Shawn Achor

For example, lets say you love visiting new places but dread the process of traveling. In this example your route is traveling and your destination is China.

Since you don’t like the route to your destination, you will go to the airport find a lonely seat, stuff your earplugs in and wait for your flight arrival. During the flight, you will do the same.

Yes, you still got to your destination but you missed out on all other experiences that the route offers – such as meeting new people, making some local friends, observing the culture, or even just showing appreciation for that friendly waitress.

]]>https://jawwad.me/flawed-formula-for-success/feed/7992How to Stop De-Humanizing Yourselfhttps://jawwad.me/how-human-are-you/
https://jawwad.me/how-human-are-you/#commentsSun, 23 Jun 2013 15:52:26 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=876There was a time when we carried cell phones (technology) for necessity but are we increasingly carrying it to kill time? You see, technology indeed celebrates connectedness but at the same time encourages retreat. Where do you draw the line? I was sitting in the quiet area of the public library, when I overlooked a stranger cheerfully scanning every single face in the library. Without thinking, I went back to scrolling through email on my cell phone. About two hours later, I leaned back in my chair to stretch when I was surprised to see the same person, as joyful as the first time, yet again doing the same thing. This time, I made eye contact (with a confused smile) and surprisingly enough he came up to me and sat down beside me. “Hi! I am Tim!” he said. Long story short, Tim was suffering from chronic depression and was trying to get comfortable with human interaction (Hence, scanning the faces in the library). It only took about 60 seconds to notice the scars on his arms, his deliberate effort to smile, and the pink flesh from under his eaten up finger nails. He was a junior student at my […]

There was a time when we carried cell phones (technology) for necessity but are we increasingly carrying it to kill time? You see, technology indeed celebrates connectedness but at the same time encourages retreat. Where do you draw the line?

I was sitting in the quiet area of the public library, when I overlooked a stranger cheerfully scanning every single face in the library. Without thinking, I went back to scrolling through email on my cell phone.

About two hours later, I leaned back in my chair to stretch when I was surprised to see the same person, as joyful as the first time, yet again doing the same thing. This time, I made eye contact (with a confused smile) and surprisingly enough he came up to me and sat down beside me.

“Hi! I am Tim!” he said.

Long story short, Tim was suffering from chronic depression and was trying to get comfortable with human interaction (Hence, scanning the faces in the library). It only took about 60 seconds to notice the scars on his arms, his deliberate effort to smile, and the pink flesh from under his eaten up finger nails.

He was a junior student at my high-school about 3 years ago and had seen me around. He told me that he has not been able to go back to school for the past two years but seeing someone (me) from his high-school gives him hope that he will.

His dream was to be a “anti-depression hero” and eventually saving his mother and his sibling – who also suffered from depression.

As he walked from my lonely table, I looked around me and then back at my desk. Cell phone. Laptop. Tablet. Headphones.

You see technology celebrates connectedness while encouraging retreat. My cell phone didn’t make me avoid the human connection when he came the first time around, but it did make ignoring him much easier. Was my daily use of technology shaping me into someone more likely to avoid human interaction?

We all know people who pretend to use their cell phones while waiting for a friend in public. When walking home alone we prefer to text and walk while avoiding anything human around. While working out or jogging, we like to stuff headphones in our ears to isolate ourselves from mother nature.

Here is the deal:

Why do we prefer sending a text message instead of calling?

Why do we prefer shooting of an email instead of a skype call?

Why do we prefer calling when we know the other party won’t pick up and just simply leave a voice-mail?

Why do we rather post “HBD!” on facebook instead of calling up the person?

You see all these scenarios help you avoid the emotional work associated with dealing with a human being directly. Yes, it saves time. But is the saved time worth it in the end? What use is technology if it makes the saved time less present, intimate, and lacking human interaction?

I am not “anti-technology”. Actually, I am quite the opposite. But the harmony lies in the balance of technology use in our daily lives.

People like Tim don’t walk around in every library, but everyone of us is always in need of something that another person (not technology) can give. We can bring a significant change in another person’s day if we simply are more attentive of our surroundings. There is no better satisfaction in aiding such need of others. Aiding others may not be the point of life, but it is a work of life. Because we all subconsciously know that we all will one day face death.

Key Takeaways

Limit technology use in public. Only take calls if absolute necessary.

]]>https://jawwad.me/how-human-are-you/feed/6876Stereotyping of “School”https://jawwad.me/stereotyping-of-school/
https://jawwad.me/stereotyping-of-school/#commentsThu, 30 May 2013 16:05:04 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=816“School doesn’t have anything to do with life.” “Learning is boring! Exams suck!” “Bill Gates dropped out of University!” School is this and that! My recent conversations with fellow students lead me to realize how the era of “learning revolution” could be serving as a self-fulfilling prophecy for the less-motivated students (or ALL students?). Plus, the PR regarding “learning revolution” may actually be discouraging students to pursue their intellectual curiosity. Wouldn’t it be easier to blame one’s poor academic performance or lack of intellectual curiosity on the irrelevance of schooling? You bet it would. Our minds love to pick out information that confirms with our perspective. For example, you will most likely accept that the exam was unfairly hard for everyone rather than accepting your poor preparation. Your brain constantly looks for ways to calm itself down. Its lazy. It does not want to go through the struggle of really figuring out why you failed that exam. Thus, it accepts the blunt statement that everyone found it hard and everyone failed! Also, we don’t like to stand out from the crowd – do we? Stereotyping and Flawed Thinking These generalization are same as any other stereotypes. Thus, like stereotypes, it […]

]]>“School doesn’t have anything to do with life.”
“Learning is boring! Exams suck!”
“Bill Gates dropped out of University!”

School is this and that!

My recent conversations with fellow students lead me to realize how the era of “learning revolution” could be serving as a self-fulfilling prophecy for the less-motivated students (or ALL students?). Plus, the PR regarding “learning revolution” may actually be discouraging students to pursue their intellectual curiosity.

Wouldn’t it be easier to blame one’s poor academic performance or lack of intellectual curiosity on the irrelevance of schooling? You bet it would.

Our minds love to pick out information that confirms with our perspective. For example, you will most likely accept that the exam was unfairly hard for everyone rather than accepting your poor preparation. Your brain constantly looks for ways to calm itself down. Its lazy. It does not want to go through the struggle of really figuring out why you failed that exam. Thus, it accepts the blunt statement that everyone found it hard and everyone failed! Also, we don’t like to stand out from the crowd – do we?

Stereotyping and Flawed Thinking

These generalization are same as any other stereotypes. Thus, like stereotypes, it functions as assumptions in our thinking.

For example, consider the following stereotypes:

Blonds are foolish.
Black people are good at basketball.
Canadians say “eh!” all the time. Eh?

The problem with assumptions like these is that they cause us to make basic – and often serious – mistakes in thinking. Because these stereotypes are not justifiable, they cause us to prejudge situations and people to draw faulty inferences and conclusions. For example, if we believe all blonds are foolish whenever we meet one we will act unfairly or unnaturally towards that person.

So, for an individual struggling with academics, the inference or conclusion he will make is that “School doesn’t have anything to do with life” so why bother? When in fact the underlying cause maybe time management, learning strategies, discipline, lack of motivation or not knowing one’s passion.

Real Questions to Focus on in School

This kind of stereotyping prevents students from focusing on important questions such as, “What does it mean to be an educated person? Why am I doing what I am doing? Will getting an “A” get me most out of this course? Instead, we tend to ask questions such as, “What do I need to do to get an “A+” in this course? How can I get last year’s assignments? How can I satisfy this professor?”

Key Takeaway

Don’t let the stereotyping of school serve as an inference to distort your thinking to achieve self-serving ends. Think critically about school and your personal goals only then can you make school work for you instead of you working for the school (not knowing where its taking you and why?)

]]>https://jawwad.me/stereotyping-of-school/feed/5816Are You Thinking about Thinking?https://jawwad.me/thinking-about-thinking/
https://jawwad.me/thinking-about-thinking/#commentsMon, 06 May 2013 14:26:45 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=750When one recalls all that they have learned in their life about love and hate, friendship, anger and fear, father and mother, city, school, money, or even human nature; it becomes clear that learning is a natural and inevitable process. We learn in many different directions – directly from books or through daily life experiences. However, “one way in which learning in not natural is self-knowledge. That is, knowing the workings of your own mind, how and why we think the way we do” says Dr. Richard Paul. From the very first day, as a new-born baby, our brains get to work by slowly making sense of all the “inputs”: sounds, smell, touch etc. Its core objective, to make sense of the alien world around it. Thus, it is not natural for our brain to think about itself. It does not contemplate on its own strengths and weaknesses, emotions, or dilemmas. Test Your Understanding of “Thinking” Put your brain to the test and see it for yourself. Answer the following questions; What have you learned about how you think? If I was to ask you to explain me your thinking process, will you be able to? Did you ever study your […]

]]>When one recalls all that they have learned in their life about love and hate, friendship, anger and fear, father and mother, city, school, money, or even human nature; it becomes clear that learning is a natural and inevitable process. We learn in many different directions – directly from books or through daily life experiences.

However, “one way in which learning in not natural is self-knowledge. That is, knowing the workings of your own mind, how and why we think the way we do” says Dr. Richard Paul. From the very first day, as a new-born baby, our brains get to work by slowly making sense of all the “inputs”: sounds, smell, touch etc. Its core objective, to make sense of the alien world around it. Thus, it is not natural for our brain to think about itself. It does not contemplate on its own strengths and weaknesses, emotions, or dilemmas.

Test Your Understanding of “Thinking”

Put your brain to the test and see it for yourself. Answer the following questions;

What have you learned about how you think?

If I was to ask you to explain me your thinking process, will you be able to?

Did you ever study your thinking?

How much of your thinking is above-average? How much is below-average? Or simply, where is it?

Do you evaluate your thinking against specific standards or just go with what comes to mind naturally?

If you are like most people, your answers would sound something like: “Well, I suppose I don’t know much about my thinking or how to evaluate it. It just happens automatically.”

Exclusive study of thinking is rare in an average person’s life. It is not something taught at home, not critical for human survival, and is not a subject at most schools.

Above all, if there is one thing that is influencing your social, professional, and personal life it is your thinking. Period.

If one is going to live his or her life as a thinker which will influence all aspects his or her life, why not deliberately improve thinking processes and get better at thinking about thinking?

]]>https://jawwad.me/thinking-about-thinking/feed/4750Your View of the Worldhttps://jawwad.me/your-view-of-the-world/
https://jawwad.me/your-view-of-the-world/#commentsFri, 15 Feb 2013 15:47:10 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=695You were born as a natural explorer. Breaking stuff, crying, staring, blabbering, and imitating were just a few examples of what your brain – the most complex thing on earth – did to make sense of the world around you. Your brain at that time was like a brand new hard drive ready to be filled with data to make sense of your existence and form a view of the world. Indeed, today we understand the world we do because of our uniquely-wired brains. Remember. When you were a kid. You thought ANYTHING was possible? You could be spider-man, superman, have a pet dinosaur, or [Your dream goes here]. No one could change that deeply rooted belief of yours – not even your own parents. Shortly after, you started attending school. School started teaching and influencing your brain as to what is possible. It taught you that grades defined how smart you are and what you could potentially do. It taught you that your teachers are always smarter than you. Whether you were intrinsic or extrinsic, visual learner or auditory learner, interested in excelling school or changing the world – none of that mattered because now you were part of the “system”. The system that […]

]]>You were born as a natural explorer. Breaking stuff, crying, staring, blabbering, and imitating were just a few examples of what your brain – the most complex thing on earth – did to make sense of the world around you. Your brain at that time was like a brand new hard drive ready to be filled with data to make sense of your existence and form a view of the world. Indeed, today we understand the world we do because of our uniquely-wired brains.

Remember. When you were a kid. You thought ANYTHING was possible? You could be spider-man, superman, have a pet dinosaur, or [Your dream goes here]. No one could change that deeply rooted belief of yours – not even your own parents.

Shortly after, you started attending school. School started teaching and influencing your brain as to what is possible. It taught you that grades defined how smart you are and what you could potentially do. It taught you that your teachers are always smarter than you. Whether you were intrinsic or extrinsic, visual learner or auditory learner, interested in excelling school or changing the world – none of that mattered because now you were part of the “system”. The system that will prepare you to become an average employee and help the country maintain its economy. Peer pressure encouraged you to be status quo, follow the herd and don’t be weird. It is by no surprise that individuals like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Larry Page rejected this view of the world enforced onto them at this particular time in their lives. “Observe the masses and do the opposite” – Walt Disney.

Upon graduation from post-secondary or high school education, you enter the world thinking that your grades defined what you could do. Grades put a dollar value on your potential income.

Finally, when you get a job you think that maybe experience will bring new opportunities. But as time goes on, especially in today’s sluggish economy, you start wondering if you will ever achieve anything BIG?

Days, months, and years pass by.

One day you read about someone who had the same idea as you – [Your dream goes here]. She made it into a company. She made it her life. She changed the industry. She changed the world and you are just sitting their thinking “Why Not me?”.

The answer is simple. We were all meant to shine as children’s, it is not in some of us it is in every single one of us. Once we let our own light shine and make our own view of the world – anything is possible. That is what Einstein, Newton, and countless other individuals did and they changed our lives, indeed.

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

]]>https://jawwad.me/your-view-of-the-world/feed/2695Your Wolf-Pack’s Influence and Associationhttps://jawwad.me/association-and-influence/
https://jawwad.me/association-and-influence/#commentsSat, 19 Jan 2013 12:16:03 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=674You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.-Jim Rohn We each have a group of friends, a wolf-pack that we resonate with. We tend to follow our wolf-pack of friends in every aspect of life – academic, personal, and social. We know that we like being part of that group… Wait. But how did we end up with our respective “wolf-pack”? This is something that caught me off-guard after high-school. Influence and Association. If you were to evaluate the major influences in your life that have shaped the kind of person you are, this is the top reason: the people and thoughts you choose to allow into your life. My father gave me a very important warning in those early teenage years that I want to share with you. He said, “Never underestimate the power of your friends’ influence.” To be honest, it took me a while to realize the true meaning of it. Indeed, the influence of those around us is so powerful. The scary part is that its subconscious. Many times we don’t even realize how we are changing our habits. My father told me that those subtle influences need to be studied carefully […]

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.-Jim Rohn

We each have a group of friends, a wolf-pack that we resonate with. We tend to follow our wolf-pack of friends in every aspect of life – academic, personal, and social. We know that we like being part of that group…

Wait. But how did we end up with our respective “wolf-pack”?

This is something that caught me off-guard after high-school.

Influence and Association.

If you were to evaluate the major influences in your life that have shaped the kind of person you are, this is the top reason: the people and thoughts you choose to allow into your life.

My father gave me a very important warning in those early teenage years that I want to share with you. He said, “Never underestimate the power of your friends’ influence.”

To be honest, it took me a while to realize the true meaning of it. Indeed, the influence of those around us is so powerful. The scary part is that its subconscious. Many times we don’t even realize how we are changing our habits.

My father told me that those subtle influences need to be studied carefully if you wanted your life to turn out the way you want it to be. Reason being, you maybe in the wrong wolf-pack.

As human beings, it takes us a while to realize who we really want to be. It is in human nature to associate with like-minded individuals which makes changing one’s wolf-pack easier and harder at the same time. With regards to this important aspect, let me give you three questions that my father asked me. They may help you better analyse your current pack of friends.

1st Question: Who am I around? Take a mental note and evaluate how each and everyone around you influences you.

Do these people make you do things that you don’t really enjoy? Do truly connect with these people?

2nd Question: What are these associations doing to me? This questions will be tough to answer but isolate yourself from the world for a brief moment and answer questions like: What have they got me doing in my spare time? What have to got me listening to? What have they got me reading? How do they influence my emotions? How do they affect my self-thoughts? This should include both positive and negative points.

Final Question:Is that Okay? With answers to the first two questions, compare the answers to yourself. Maybe everyone you associate with have positive influences on you. But again, there might be a few bad apples.

Maybe you just happened to be hanging out with the same crowd since middle school and never made an effort to diversify your circle.

Action Step: Disassociate and LimitAssociation –If you are not with the wolf-pack that resonates with your personal goals, unfortunately, its time to disassociate or limit association. It could be a choice that preserves the quality of your life.

Action Step: Expand Your Wolf-Pack: Yes, that will mean to earn the respect of the wolf-pack you want to associate with. But the fruits of that labor will pay off. Once accepted, they will train you to be better and bigger.

It is very easy to dismiss the things that influence our lives.

Most people say,, “I hang around with them most of the time but I have different personal goals in life.”

That is wrong, we cannot shape our unconscious mind which is constantly being affected by the association and influences we encounter in life.

Remember, we are social species. We learn how to talk, walk, and eat by watching others.

As a matter of fact, 90% of our brain is unconscious brain and we control about 10% of our brain. Food for thought.

In conclusion, it is important to not look down upon or unfriend anyone. What makes humans beautiful is that we are all different. Thus, I do not expect everyone around me to be exactly like me. If that was true there would be no different between animals and humans.

The best way to put is to truly know yourself and consciously seek out people like yourself so your collective effort can leave a lasting impact behind for generations to come.

]]>https://jawwad.me/association-and-influence/feed/3674Thinking about the Prospective Thinkinghttps://jawwad.me/prospective-thinking/
https://jawwad.me/prospective-thinking/#commentsTue, 15 Jan 2013 12:32:40 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/?p=645You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. – Steve Jobs I believe our prospective thinking (thinking about the future) is weaker than our retrospective memory (thinking about the past). Both have their weaknesses. Today, I wanted to reflection on the future thinking (aka prospective thinking). Why is that we are less likely to accurately predict our future (habits, lifestyle, values, and career)? Looking back, I have consistently underestimated as to how much I will change. Biases that affect Prospective Thinking Not surprisingly, there are biases that influence us to significantly underestimate how we will or need to change to become the person we expect to be. These biases are; End of History Illusion – Our tendency to underestimate how much we will change and grow in the future. Availability Heuristic – Our tendency to only factor in what we can remember quickly or what we visually see. Putting aside the […]

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. – Steve Jobs

I believe our prospective thinking (thinking about the future) is weaker than our retrospective memory (thinking about the past). Both have their weaknesses. Today, I wanted to reflection on the future thinking (aka prospective thinking).

Why is that we are less likely to accurately predict our future (habits, lifestyle, values, and career)? Looking back, I have consistently underestimated as to how much I will change.

Biases that affect Prospective Thinking

Not surprisingly, there are biases that influence us to significantly underestimate how we will or need to change to become the person we expect to be. These biases are;

Availability Heuristic – Our tendency to only factor in what we can remember quickly or what we visually see.

Putting aside the shortcomings and criticism of the above biases, they do provide some food for thought when evaluating your own prospective thinking.

Why we underestimate the future change

The research collaborators from Harvard and University of Virginia, started with a few theories to test including the likelihood of people to overestimate their own accomplishments. Dr. Quoidbach explains;

“Believing that we just reached the peak of our personal evolution makes us feel good. The ‘I wish that I knew then what I know now’ experience might give a sense of satisfaction and meaning, whereas realizing how transient our preferences and values are might lead us to doubt every decision and generate anxiety.”

Another explanation is that human brain dislikes uncertainty. A separate research found that installing an inexpensive timer for next arrival at each bus stop increased customer satisfaction by a whopping 140% – more so than investing millions in increasing the bus’s speed. Thus, our brains are naturally wired to subconsciously avoid such times that require mental energy. “People may confuse the difficulty of imaging personal change with unlikelihood of change itself” the authors wrote in their research.

One of the greatest downside of the “end of history illusion” is that it makes us vulnerable to decisions that we regret in the near future. Decision about getting a tattoo, personal, and drugs which happen to mostly occur during teenage years. During teenage years, the brain’s prefrontal cortex, the center of reasoning and decision-making, is still underdevelopment when it is disturbed by hormones. Thus, there is no doubt that the teenage years are the time of rolling emotions and bad judgement.

The “end of history illusion” effect suggests a potential failure in personal imagination for each of us. We often share deeply rooted memories about our past but then make vague projections of the near future.

When you were a child did you not think you would hold onto your Barbie doll or action figure forever? They will be your toy forever? Our brains are hard-wired in a way which favors continuity in our thoughts. It tends to project the future based on previous memories and experiences regardless of their nature. Consciously knowing the weaknesses of our brains to project the person we expect to be, how would you make sure to not let these weaknesses come in the way of who you want to be?

Further reading on Prospecthing Thinking

While contemplating this topic, I read and found insights from the following resources;

]]>https://jawwad.me/prospective-thinking/feed/3645Execution – the must have skill for success and resultshttps://jawwad.me/execution-the-must-have-skill-for-success-and-results/
https://jawwad.me/execution-the-must-have-skill-for-success-and-results/#respondTue, 20 Nov 2012 10:06:25 +0000http://www.jawwad.me/new/?p=247Businesses face many external factors in today’s changing and uncertain economy. These factors include decreased margins, the rapid boom of e-commerce, low consumer confidence and much more. To work against these factors, businesses must master the skill of execution. Many ambitious business owners spend a great deal creating solid plans, but are unable to execute properly. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” He not only emphasized the importance of planning, but also the discipline of executing plans. Why is this a topic of concern? Well, it is a concern for two main reasons. First, traditional management education puts great emphasis on management techniques and strategic thinking, but execution is not emphasized as much. Secondly, Execution and persistence are arguably the most crucial ingredients for any start-up’s success. Compaq vs Dell – A Case Study Former CEO of Compaq, Eckhard Pfeiffer, envisioned an ambitious strategy. He saw that the so-called “Wintel Architecture” – the combination of the Windows operating system and Intel’s constant innovation – would serve as the core for everything from handheld computers to corporate servers. He began acquisitions to begin serving […]

]]>Businesses face many external factors in today’s changing and uncertain economy. These factors include decreased margins, the rapid boom of e-commerce, low consumer confidence and much more. To work against these factors, businesses must master the skill of execution.

Many ambitious business owners spend a great deal creating solid plans, but are unable to execute properly. As Abr